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their humble condition, the host resists all the entreaties of his wife to let them in—she, with the compassion of a woman (found, as Mungo Park relates, even in the uncivilised interior of Africa) being moved with the apparent helpless condition of the Virgin—the surly host, however, says,
" Fermez, fermez la porte, Nous ne logerons point des gens de cette sorte."
Thus repulsed, they then take shelter in the stable.
The legend of the roasted cock coming to life, in proof of our Saviour's birth, which is mentioned in the carol of the 1 Carnal and the Crane,' may also be found in an old carol for St. Stephen's Day, of the time of Henry the Sixth; but in this, instead of crowing three times, as in the more modern carol, the bird, which in the older version is called a capon, crows, " Christus natus est,'' The legend of the husbandman, in the same carol, whose seed sprang up before Herod and hi3 train arrived, has been already referred to, as forming part of one of the old mysteries.
The curious fancy, in the carol of ? I saw three ships,' is old; one of the ancient Dutch carols given by Hoffman, beginning
11 There comes a vessel laden,
And on its highest gunwale,
Mary holds the rudder,
The angel steers it on."
And in an after verse,
" In one unbroken course There comes that ship to land, It brings to us rich gifts, Forgiveness is sent to us." |
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