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368 MARY MIXED A PUDDING UP—MERRILS
Swedish ballad or ring dance-song, entitled " Fair Gundela," he considers this may be a prototype of the English game, or that they may both be indebted to a more primitive original. The Swedish game rather gives the idea of a maiden who has sought supernatural assistance from a wise woman, or witch, to ask after the fate of those dear to her, and the English versions may also be dramatic renderings of a ballad of this character. Mr. Jacobs' More English Fairy Tales) p. 221, considers this game to have originated from the Tale of the "Golden Ball."
Mary mixed a Pudding up
Mary mixed a pudding up,
She mixed it very sweet,
She daren't stick a knife in
Till John came home at neet [ = night].
Taste John, taste John, don't say nay,
Perhaps to-morrow morning will be our wedding-day.
The bells shall ring and we shall sing,
And all clap hands together (round the ring).
Up the lane and down, It's slippery as a glass,
If we go to Mrs.------
We'll find a nice young lass. Mary with the rosy cheeks, Catch her if you can ; And if you cannot catch her, We'll tell you her young man.
—Hanging Heaton (Herbert Hardy).
A ring is formed by the children joining hands, one child in the centre. The first verse is sang. Two children from the ring go to the one in the centre and ask her who is her love, or as they say here [Yorks.], "who she goes with;" after that the rest is sung.
See "All the Boys."
Merrils
See " Nine Men's Morris." |
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