Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/218

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2o6 Ballads, etc. well as many of their sayings and rh}'mes) much too broad for the taste of this generation, and would only be tolerated in the days when "a spade was called a spade." There are two exceptions that I know worth transcribing ; one has already appeared with its answer, through the Rev. S. Rundle, in Transactions Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1 88^-86. , " Riddle me ! riddle me right ! Guess where I was to last Saturday night. Up in the old ivy tree, Two old foxes under me, Digging a grave to bury me. First I heard the wind blow, Then I heard the cock crow. Then I saw the chin-champ chawing up his bridle. Then I saw the work-man working hisself idle." Answer. — A young woman made an appointment to meet her sweetheart ; arriving first at the place, she climbed into an ivy- covered tree to await his coming. He came in company with another man, and not seeing her "the two old foxes" began to dig a grave, in which from her hiding-place she heard that after murdering they intended putting her. The " chin-champ " was the horse on which they rode away, when they failed to discover her. " Working hisself idle," is working in vain. " As I went over London bridge Upon a cloudy day, I met a fellow, clothed in yellow, I took him up and sucked his blood. And threw his skin away." What was he? Answer. — An orange. With a nonsensical acrostic on the word Finis, well known in the beginning of this century, I must end this (I fear) long, ram- bling work. "F — for Francis, I — for Jancis, N — for Nich'las Bony ; I — for John the water-man, S — for Sally Stony." M. A. Courtney.