A Childi'ens Game and the Lyke Wake. 277
and the lady used to be employed as a cure for hiccoughs. " The patient was held by the eye of the reciter, who said the rhyme very quietly and impressively until it came to the last word ' Oh,' which was suddenly shouted, and so startled the patient that the hiccoughs vanished at once." The medicinal value of the incantation is echoed also in its use to amuse and even to soothe children. Children loved it, says one.
7. The materials which have turned up from so many quarters on the apparently slight suggestions of the present, show that at the back of our minds there is still the popular tradition of which Mr. Hardy has been the spokesman for Dorset. The resurrection of the dead, for instance. But it is no year spirit, no wood king, that is challenged to rise, but just everyman or anyman. Along with the general agreement of the tradition in substance there is great variety in form. In the one case the shriek of the lady, in both cases the occurrence of the lines about the corruption of the body are among the few permanent elements. On the whole it may be said that a tradition may be widespread and venerable but that it will not be uniform. Hence, when it is committed to writing the permanent form will represent but one out of many possibilities, and not of necessity the best of them.
Frank Granger.
