THE 
 
 SWORD DANCES 
 
 OF NORTHERN 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 CECIL J. SHARP 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 NOVELLO AND COMPANY, Limited. 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924019904964 
 
THE 
 
 SWORD DANCES 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTHERN ENGLAND 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 THE HORN DANCE 
 
 OF 
 
 ABBOTS BROMLEY 
 
 COLLECTED AND DESCRIBED 
 
 BY 
 
 CECIL J. SHARP. 
 
 London: NOVELLO AND COMPANY, Limited. 
 
This Book is isstied in connection with "The Sword-Dances of Northern 
 England: Songs and Dance-Airs," by the same Author. 
 Price 2/-. 
 London : NOVELLO AND COMPANY. Ltd. 
 
TO 
 
 C Ccnnox (Bilmour, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Author wishes to acknowledge the kindness and friendly 
 help he has received from the dancers whose performances 
 are described in this book, especially from Mr, T. Armstrong, 
 the veteran Captain of the Earsdon team, and Messrs. Spence, 
 Wragg and Harrison, the leaders respectively of the Earsdon, 
 Grenoside, and Kirkby Malzeard dancers. He is also deeply 
 indebted to Mrs. Eden, the Eev. Eeginald and Mrs. Gatty, 
 Dr. Michael Foster, Mr. J. E. Taylor, Mr. Parker Brewis, 
 and Mr. W. Mill, and many others whose names are too 
 numerous to mention, for the valuable and generous 
 assistance they have, in one way or another, given him 
 ia the course of his investigations. 
 
 To Mr. E. Phillips Barker the Author owes a large debt 
 of gratitude, not only for reading the proofs and bringing a 
 wide, practical knowledge to bear upon his criticisms of the 
 technical portions of the book, but also for materially helping 
 him in the writing of the Introduction, of which he is to be 
 regarded as joint-author. 
 
 Finally, he wishes to thank Mr. Ealph Hedley 
 and the proprietors of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle for 
 permission to reproduce the former's picture in the frontis- 
 piece ; to Mr. W. Mill and Mr. A. Parker for allowing him 
 to print the photographs facing p. 46 and p. 105 ; and to 
 Messrs. James Bacon and Sons (Leeds and Newcastle) for 
 permission to reproduce the photograph facing p. 51. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Introduction 
 
 9 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 
 The Long-Swoed Dance , 
 
 37 
 
 The Kirkby Malzeard Sword-Dance... 
 
 37 
 
 Costume ... 
 
 39 
 
 The Music , 
 
 40 
 
 The Step 
 
 41 
 
 The Dance 
 
 ... 42 
 
 The Captain's Song 
 
 42 
 
 Figure 1. The Clash 
 
 44 
 
 Figure 2. Single-Under 
 
 ... 45 
 
 Figures. Single-Over 
 
 47 
 
 Figure 4. Double- Sword 
 
 ... 48 
 
 Figure 5. Double-Under 
 
 ... 49 
 
 Figure 6. Double-0-ver 
 
 50 
 
 Figure 7. Your-Own-Sword 
 
 .. 51 
 
 Figures. The Lock 
 
 52 
 
 Notation 
 
 ... 53 
 
 The Geenoside Swoed-Dance ... ... ... ... 54 
 
 Costume ... 54 
 
 The Music 55 
 
 The Steps 55 
 
 The Dance 67 
 
 The Captain's Song ... 57 
 
 Figure 1. Eing-and-Step ... 58 
 
 Figure 2. The Lock (A) 58 
 
 Figures. The Lock (B) 58 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 The Gkenoside Swoed-Danob (continued) : — 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Figure 4. Single-Sword-Dancing-All-The- 
 
 
 Way-Eound 
 
 ... 59 
 
 Figure 5. Single- Sword-Down 
 
 ... 60 
 
 Figure 6. Single-Sword-Up 
 
 61 
 
 Figure 7. Double- Swords-Down ... 
 
 .. 61 
 
 Figure 8. Double- Swords-Up 
 
 ... 62 
 
 Chorus. Tantiro 
 
 ... 63 
 
 Figure 9. The Eeel 
 
 ... 63 
 
 Figure 10. The Eoll 
 
 ... 64 
 
 Notation 
 
 ... 66 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 
 The Shoet-Swobd Dance 
 
 ... 69 
 
 The Swalwell S word-Dance 
 
 ... 72 
 
 Costume 
 
 ... 72 
 
 The Music 
 
 ... 73 
 
 The Steps 
 
 ... 73 
 
 The Dance 
 
 ... 73 
 
 Figure 1. One-Turn- Off 
 
 ... 74 
 
 Figure 2. The Nut 
 
 ... 74 
 
 Figure 3. The Needle 
 
 ... 77 
 
 Figure 4. Eight-and-Left 
 
 ... 79 
 
 Figures. Eank 
 
 ... 80 
 
 Notation 
 
 ... 81 
 
 The Eaksdon Swobd-Dance 
 
 ... 82 
 
 Costume 
 
 ... 82 
 
 The Music 
 
 ... 83 
 
 The Steps 
 
 .;. 83 
 
 The Dance 
 
 ... 84 
 
 Introduction (Old version) 
 
 ... 84 
 
 Introduction (Modern version) 
 
 ... 87 
 
 Figure 1. Single-Guard 
 
 ... 90 
 
 Figure 2. The Nut 
 
 ... 90 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Eaesdon Sword-Dance (continued) : — page 
 
 Figure 3. Three-and-Two 91 
 
 Figure 4. Turn-In 92 
 
 Figure 6. Follow-We 92 
 
 Figure 6. Changy ... 92 
 
 Figure 7. Tumble 93 
 
 Figure 8. Figure Eight 94 
 
 Figure 9. Eaffally 94 
 
 Figure 10. The Prince of Wales 95 
 
 Figure 11. Doctor Cook 96 
 
 Figure 12. Fixy 97 
 
 Figure 13. The Old Fiddler 98 
 
 Figure 14. Doctor Parry ... ... ... ... 101 
 
 Figure 15. Waves 101 
 
 Figure 16. Double-Guard 101 
 
 Figure 17. Face-Up 101 
 
 Notation 102 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Abbots Beomley Hoen -Dance ... ... ... 105 
 
 The Music 105 
 
 The Step 106 
 
 The Dance 108 
 
 Serpentine Movement 109 
 
 All-Together 110 
 
 Processional Movement ... ... 112 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Of the four sword-dances described in these pages, two 
 were collected in Yorkshire, one in Durham, and one in 
 Northumberland. The long-sword Yorkshire dances differ 
 very considerably from those gathered in the more northern 
 counties, where the short-sword or "rapper" is used. The 
 particular dances selected for publication are, I believe, 
 typical examples of the two species of sword-dance. 
 
 The Abbots Bromley Horn-Dance is included for several 
 reasons. Firstly, its movements, though few and very simple, 
 possess a peculiar and characteristic beauty which makes it 
 worthy of publication. Secondly, though the horn-dance is 
 well known by repute to most antiquaries, and has often 
 formed the subject of remark and discussion in archasological 
 works, its figures have not yet, so far as I am aware, been 
 technically described. Finally, the horn-dance and 
 sword-dance, as I shall presently show, belong so far to the 
 same order of ideas, that their juxtaposition is by no means 
 inappropriate. 
 
 The purpose of this book is primarily practical. Its design 
 is to place before those who are interested in the revival of 
 our national dances some examples of a particular type of 
 folk-dance which has not hitherto attracted the attention of 
 collectors, and to present these in such a form that they may 
 be learned without the aid of a special instructor and by those 
 who have never seen the dances performed. Whether this 
 object has been attained must be left to the decision of tliose 
 to whom the book is addressed. It can however be said in 
 all sincerity, that no trouble has been spared to note the 
 dances with all possible accuracy, and to find simple and 
 unambiguous language in which to describe tliem. 
 
10 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 The sword-dance, like the Morris, is traditionally a man's 
 dance. It is essentially an indoor dance, and can be 
 performed in a room of ordinary size ; its movements are 
 vigorous, and the figures so varied and intricate that the 
 performance makes equal demands on both mind and body. 
 
 To the folk-lorist the dances will make a different appeal. 
 The sword-dance very obviously bears upon it the stamp of a 
 high antiquity : its roots, stretching far into an unhistoried 
 past, take hold upon the primal needs and rudimentary 
 beliefs of primitive man. The whole folk-dance, indeed, is a 
 riddle of which the answer, if we could but read it, would 
 materially add to existing knowledge of the religious ideas 
 and ceremonies, the dim faiths, fears and aspirations of our 
 remotest ancestors. Doubtless the sword-dance is now and 
 has been for innumerable generations practised for its intrinsic 
 aesthetic and social quaUties, and primarily , for the sake of 
 mere entertainment; yet originally there was in it another 
 and deeper purpose. To discover that purpose is to solve 
 a problem of great complexity. In an attempt to recover the 
 significance of customs whose beginnings lie wrapped in the 
 haze of prehistoric times, and whose inner meaning has been 
 lost perhaps for ages before the observer's eye was turned on 
 them, there is a wide field for difference of opinion, for 
 different marshalling and interpretation of too scanty facts 
 which must so often be eked out by more or less precarious 
 conjecture. For the solution now to be offered, the writer 
 does not claim that it is either final or original ; he has only 
 endeavoured to give, conformably to the scope and intention 
 of this book, a coherent expression to a view which in his 
 opinion agrees with the evidence previously acquired, and 
 especially with the new evidence available in the dances now 
 for the first time published in a detailed form. 
 
 What is a Morris-dancer ? Anyone who is familiar with 
 the normal Morris-dance of the Midlands and the South of 
 England will be ready with an answer. But let him question 
 the sword-dancers of Grenoside and Earsdon, and he will , 
 
INTBODUCTION. 11 
 
 find them also insisting that they are Morris-dancers. Next 
 let him follow up a few vague, verbal clues of supposed 
 Morris-dancers, in the hope of discovering the Morris-dance 
 proper : he will find time after time that he has been sent in 
 quest of mummers — a class to him quite distinct. In due 
 course it will dawn on him that the sword-dancer of Northern 
 England, the Morris-dancer of the Midlands and the South, 
 and the mummer of all England and Scotland, are in the 
 popular view as one, and pass under the same name. This 
 is at least a significant point : a common name suggests other 
 points of community — perhaps community of origin. Let us 
 see whether further evidence will justify the ascription of a 
 common source to these three forms of folk- entertainment. 
 
 The sword very naturally suggests itself as a starting-point. 
 It is obviously the very life and soul of the sword-dance. 
 In the mumming drama we find it playing an invariable and 
 essential part which must be reserved for later notice. For 
 the present we will concentrate our attention upon the 
 Morris-dance proper, with which its connection is at first by 
 no means so evident. 
 
 To this day the procession of Morris-dancers at Bampton 
 (Oxfordshire) is headed by a man who carries a sword 
 impaling a cake decorated with flowers and ribbons. The 
 same custom was observed at Ducklington, Field Assarts and 
 Leafield (Oxfordshire), Sherborne (Gloucestershire), and 
 probably at many other places as well. Again, at Buardean, 
 Mayhill, Cliffords Mesne, and other villages in and around the 
 Forest of Dean, the leader of the Morris-procession carried two 
 swords, one in each hand, which he manipulated in a very 
 skilful manner. 
 
 In Johnson's Dictionary (1755) the Morris is defined as 
 " a dance in which beUs are jingled or staves or swords clashed " ; 
 and Miss Bume in Shropshire Folk-Lore (p. 478), records 
 that "some caU the staves wooden swords," and prints a 
 document (1652) in which mention is made of a "morrice- 
 daunce .... with six sword bearers," one of whom. 
 
12 8W0BD DANCES. 
 
 Thomas Lee, " was most abusive." In two passing notices we 
 seem to catch a hint of the transition from sword to stick in 
 the dance itself. Bell (^Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of 
 England), in his note on a Durham sword-dancers' song and 
 interlude, says that the Devonshire peasants had a similar 
 performance, with laths for swords. Wright {Dialect 
 Dictionary, s.v. Morris) records a Northamptonshire stick- 
 dance, called the "Bedlam Morris," containing a figure 
 which is otherwise only known in sword-dances. More direct 
 evidence may be cited. At Flamborough (Yorks), where the 
 sword-dance is still performed, the dancers use stout wooden 
 swords, made of ash ; and in Sussex, Miss Lucy Broadwood 
 tells me, the mummers, without actually dancing, still 
 preserve traces of the circular sword-dance movement, and 
 carry wooden swords which they lock together in the 
 usual way. 
 
 With these indications of the sword's mere presence we 
 must, so far as tradition and observed custom go, rest content. 
 And so far indeed, it might be urged that in the sword-dance 
 and Morris-dance the sword was merely a theatrical property, 
 a convenient instrument for the purpose of the dance, like the 
 broom in the broom-stick dance and the flail in the flail-dance, 
 choice naturally falhng on the sword in days when many 
 wore and more possessed that weapon. Yet it is hard to 
 think that even so it would be the obvious implement of the 
 dancing peasant ? An examination of the possible significance 
 of the sword in its relation to the Morris may carry us 
 further. 
 
 For the Morris-dance of Mid-England, Mr. Percy Manning 
 (Folk-Lore, viii. (1897), pp. 307-324:) has gathered some most 
 important facts. 
 
 He has shown that within living memory it was the custom 
 in certain Oxfordshire villages to kill an animal for the 
 purpose of a feast, at Whitsuntide and other Morris festivals. 
 At Kirtlington, for instance, on the Monday, Tuesday and 
 Wednesday after Trinity Sunday, a man walked before the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 Morris-dancers carrying on his shoulders a lamb decked with 
 ribbons and with its legs bound together. On the Wednesday 
 it was killed and made into pies, one of which— the 
 "head-pie" — contained the animal's head with wool intact. 
 These pies were afterwards cut up and distributed, special 
 virtue attaching to the head-pie, which could only be bought 
 whole for a shilling. At Kidlington a similar " Lamb Ale," 
 with some differences of detail, took place on Whit-Monday : 
 a feast on the flesh of the lamb closed the proceedings. 
 
 Another custom formerly prevailing among certain villages 
 on the western border of Oxfordshire, near what was once 
 the great Forest of Wychwood, was the "Whit Hunt." 
 These villages joined in hunting and killing three deer. The 
 deer were skinned, the heads and antlers going to the three 
 men who were first in at the death, while pieces of the skin 
 were distributed as bringing luck. During the Hunt we 
 learn that at Ducklington (selected by Mr. Manning as 
 typical of the group), at Bampton (where this part of the 
 custom still survives), and presumably in the other villages 
 concerned, Morris-dancers went through the village, a man 
 walking at their head with the large cake impaled on a sword 
 to which reference has been made. 
 
 Indications of a similar custom might have been seen, as 
 recently as seven to ten years ago, at Abingdon (Berkshire), 
 where the Morris-dancers were preceded by (1) a man bearing 
 a pair of ox's horns mounted on a pole; (2) the "Mayor," 
 carrying a money-box attached to a scarf round his neck, 
 and a sword, or rather fencing foil, wrapped in white rag 
 and decked, point and hilt, with white ribbons; (3) the 
 " ex-Mayor," holding a wooden cup or chalice, called 
 " the glass," ornamented with a bull's heart in silver. 
 
 Now an outstanding feature in the religion of primitive 
 communities is the periodic slaughter of some animal to 
 provide a clan-feast. This was not at all a mere merry-making : 
 it was a solemn sacrament. The primitive mind drew no 
 very clear line between its dimly conceived clan-deity, the 
 
14 8W0BB DANCES. 
 
 human members of the clan, and the sacred animals of 
 the clan herd. There was close kinship between gods and 
 men, men and animals, animals and gods. The clan, 
 regarded as a common mass of flesh and blood, the clan god 
 and the sacred animal strangely linked with his life, were of 
 one kindred. To cement the bond between the members 
 of the clan, and between the god and the clan, the most 
 obvious means was that god and men together should be 
 sharers in a ceremonial feast, together drinking the blood 
 and eating the flesh of an animal victim in some mystic 
 way identified with the god himself, the communion thus 
 established, in the distribution of a divine life immanent in 
 flesh and blood, conferring benefits on aU the humajn 
 participants. ^ 
 
 It was not till a later stage of religious development that 
 the victim so sacrificed was conceived as an oblation : 
 godhead had grown less brotherly and more majestic, to be 
 propitiated with gifts like the great ones of the earth; no 
 longer as mystic eater and eaten to be present at our table 
 and form our food. 
 
 Now may we not still see in the lamb-pies of Kirtlington, 
 in the "lamb-ale" of Kidlington with its feast on the flesh 
 of the slaughtered lamb, and in the final banquet of venison 
 in the Whit Hunt, the last vestiges of the older sacramental 
 sacrifice ? And may we not see the same in an Easter 
 Monday ceremony at Hallaton,* in Leicestershire, where 
 a hare (always a highly mysterious animal) is carried in 
 procession, and "hare pies" afterwards scrambled for? 
 Though of course the meaning of the rite, in all these 
 cases, has long been extinct except in a vague feeling that 
 the participation in the meal, or the possession of a pie, 
 "brings luck." 
 
 But a further primitive means of sacramental union with 
 the deity lay in the worshipper's assuming the form of the 
 slaughtered victim by robing himself in its head and skin. 
 
 * E. K. Chambers : The Uledicsval Stage, i. 150. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 Thus fortified inwardly with divine food and outwardly 
 wearing the likeness of the divine, he would express hia 
 exaltation by appropriate movements, steps and gestures. 
 
 A survival of this metamorphosis is to be seen in the 
 carrying of the horns by the six dancers at Abbots Bromley, 
 and in the distribution of the heads and pieces of the skin of 
 the slain deer at the Whit Hunt. 
 
 From the earliest times the head, as the special seat of 
 the soul, was a thing of power, too dynamic, in fact, to be 
 eaten, but a desirable if rather awful possession. So when 
 circumstances forbade that a worshipper should receive the 
 whole skin, and division was resorted to, the head was the 
 part most prized, and became a reward of prowess, or later, 
 when its awfulness had diminished, an object of sometimes 
 fierce competition. The men who were first in at the death 
 received the antlered heads in the Wychwood Forest custom. 
 At Kirtlington the " head pie " (hardly intended to be eaten, 
 one imagines) was only sold for a shilling. In ancient Borne 
 two of the City wards met annually in a scrimmage for the 
 head of the October Horse, and without adducing the detailed 
 evidence, it may be stated that the games of football which 
 are or were held yearly at certain places — as Alnwick, Chester 
 and Dorking — are probably traceable to the same origin. The 
 significance of the rabbit's head and skin on the Grenoside 
 Captain's helmet may be discussed later. 
 
 At DuekUngton and Bampton, two of the villages partici- 
 pating in the Whit Hunt, and presumably typical of the 
 group, we saw that a sword and cake were carried before the 
 Morris-dancers left behind in the village during the Hunt. 
 No victim is recorded. At the Kirtlington and Kidlington 
 Morris- festivals a lamb (at Kidlington its skin) was carried, 
 but sword and cake are absent. Other resemblances in the 
 customs are so many and so close that their original identity 
 can hardly be questioned. Sword and lamb were instrument 
 and victim — both sacrificial: in one district the sword has 
 apparently vanished, in the other the lamb. A conjecture — 
 
 Sword Dances.— Novello. B 
 
16 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 but it is only conjecture — may perhaps supply the reason. 
 The proximity of Wychwood Forest may in the one case 
 have occasioned the rise of a district hunters' rite alongside of 
 the local agricultural rites of the various villages. For some 
 reason the hunters' victim ousted the others, but the sword, 
 as ensign of the village ceremony, was the more jealously 
 preserved. Kidlington and Kirtlington, away to the East, 
 and more purely agricultural, continued to slay their own 
 victims, without the same spur to their conservatism in the 
 choice of an instrument. 
 
 The meaning of the cake is dubious : it may be a substitute 
 for an animal victim : on the other hand it may belong to a 
 cognate rite. The sacrificial cake, made in a special manner 
 of various kinds of grain, and eaten sacramentally, or carried 
 away piece-meal and buried in the fields, is a well attested 
 phenomenon of primitive religion. 
 
 As the sacrificial cake supplies a vegetable parallel to the 
 animal victim, so the wearing of the victim's skin is 
 paralleled by the wearing of a frame covered with green 
 leaves and flowers, exemplified by Jack-in-the-Green in many 
 May-Day ceremonies, and by the bearer of the Garland at 
 Castleton in Derbyshire. 
 
 So far we have shown by scraps of tradition, and the 
 evidence of customs either now surviving or observed not so 
 long ago, that the sword had and still has a certain connection 
 with the Morris-dance. The connection has dwindled, but 
 its tenacity at least is proved by the centuries that have 
 elapsed since the Morris-dance lost its definite religious 
 significance, and became a mere form of healthy amusement, 
 and social entertainment. If the theory of origin above 
 applied to the midland Morris-festival be accepted, it assigns 
 to the sword an organic status as the trace of a very 
 primitive form of sacrifice. Our whole position will be 
 greatly strengthened if we find in the other two branches of 
 folk-oustom, in which the sword still plays a more essential 
 part— the sword-dance and the mumming play — any features 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 which point to an origin related to or identical with that 
 assumed in the case of the Morris-dance. 
 
 To the first of these we will now turn. And here we are 
 able to supplement the descriptions contained in this volume 
 with written records of the dance as it was performed in 
 former centuries, and in this and other countries. This is in 
 marked contrast to the past history of the Morris- dance, of 
 which we know only a few meagre details of the characters 
 who took part in the dance, their costume, and the bare fact 
 of its distribution over Germany, Flanders, Switzerland, Italy, 
 Spain and France. So far as I am aware, not a single 
 detailed and technical description of the dance itself, as it 
 was performed in days gone by, has come down to us, so 
 that the whole of the technical knowledge we possess is 
 confined to the dance as it appears in present or recent 
 times. 
 
 Happily this is not so with the sword-dance. We know 
 that it has been found all over Germany, in Sweden, in the 
 Hebrides, in Fifeshire ; in Spain, France, and the north of 
 England, while traces have been observed in two of the 
 southern English counties. The dance known in Italy as 
 the mattacino, in Spain as the matachin, and in France as the 
 danse des houffons, in which apparently sword and buckler were 
 used, is a form probably contaminated by the spectacular 
 armed dances of Greek and Roman civilization, which were 
 very far from being folk-dances in their later developments. 
 
 But in addition to this, records of the dance have survived 
 which contain a certain amount of detailed description. The 
 most systematic collection of these is K. Miillenhoff's 
 monograph Veber den Schwerttanz (Festgahen fixr G. Homeyer : 
 Berlin, 1871, pp. 111-147). ' From this and some other 
 sources the following summary has been drawn. 
 
 Leaving out of account the often quoted description given 
 by Tacitus {Germania, 24), which is too cursory to be of much 
 value, the earliest contemporary record known refers to a 
 sword-dance at Brunswick, c. 1443. 
 
18 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 But at Nuremberg tradition states that the cutlers 
 performed their sword-dance in the year 1350 or 1351, and 
 records of its repeated performance between the years 1490 
 and 1600 are or were in existence. 
 
 There is to be seen at Berlin a most instructive picture of 
 the dance as it was performed at Nuremberg on February 23rd 
 in the latter year. It shows two double rings of dancers in 
 white shirts or doublets, holding up on a frame of interlaced 
 swords two swordsmen clad entirely in colours. There are 
 also, separately, seven sword-dancers, six in white doublets, 
 the first only clothed in red, like one of the swordsmen. 
 They dance in file toward the left, each sloping his own 
 sword back over his left shoulder and grasping the sword- 
 point of the man next in front of him. The last man only 
 shoulders his sword. Pipe and tabour supply the music. 
 
 At Ulm in 1551 a sword-dance was performed by four-and- 
 twenty journeymen, with two "masters of the long-sword." 
 As the climax, all danced round a Pool, on whose shoulders 
 each laid his sword ; when the swords lay thus one of the 
 masters of fence mounted on them. It is hard to see how he 
 did it ! 
 
 Olaus Magnus* is the first author to give a connected 
 description of the dance, as practised among the Goths and 
 Swedes, with some detail. " For eight successive days," he 
 writes, "before Shrovetide, young men disport themselves in 
 a rhythmic dancing measure, moving with swords held aloft 
 but sheathed in a thrice-repeated round. Next they unsheath 
 their swords, lift them once more, and extend them from 
 hand to hand : circling more sedately, the swords grasped 
 hilt and point between them, they change their order and 
 bring themselves into position for forming a hexagonal figure 
 which they call the Eose : this they undo forthwith by 
 drawing back their swords and raising them, so that a square 
 rose is formed over each man's head : finally they end their 
 
 ♦ De Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Eomw, 1555) 1. xv. c.xxiii. 
 
INTBODUCTION. 19 
 
 display by a reverse movement, dancing very rapidly and 
 clashing the flat of their swords together with the greatest 
 vigour. The time of the performance is marked by pipe or 
 singing or both together : the dance is at first staid, then 
 grows faster and faster till it ends at a furious speed." 
 
 Johann Justus Winkelmann, writing in 1697, gives some 
 particulars of the sword-dance in Hesse and Hersfeld. The 
 dancers wore white shirts, hats decorated with coloured 
 ribbons and white kerchiefs, sashes round the waist and bells 
 at the knee : their sleeves were bound with ribbons which 
 hung in long streamers. Their numbers were sixteen to 
 twenty, and they performed at Shrovetide and at weddings. 
 The leader speaks a rhymed prologue of a suspiciously 
 archaeological tinge, and after the dance, which is dismissed 
 with a few words on its complexity, a rhymed epilogue of a 
 more popular character and containing traces of impersonation. 
 One phrase in it may perhaps justify the conjecture that he 
 was hoisted meanwhile, presumably on a frame of swords. 
 
 The sword-dance in Ditmarschen is mentioned, and only 
 mentioned, by Neocorus (c. 1600) : the jurist Anton Viethen 
 (18th century) gives a detailed notice of it. 
 
 Viethen says that the dancers wore white shirts decked all 
 over with gay ribbons, and one bell on each leg. All are 
 bareheaded except the leader, whom they call "king," and 
 an anonymous personage " in the middle " (der so in der 
 \mitten) whose part in the proceedings is not explained, but 
 Imight correspond to that of the Fool. After a speech by the 
 " king," the tabour strikes up and the dance begins. They 
 3ance in a ring ; then hey {tanzen h-euzweis durcheinander) ; 
 they jump over the swords ; they lay them down in a figure 
 "not unlike a rose"; round this they dance in a ring and 
 jump over it ; a square rose is formed on each dancer's head : 
 finally they lock their swords, upon which the " king " steps 
 and is hoisted and held while he says a few words of 
 ihanks to the onlookers. The number of dancers is not 
 riven. 
 
20 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 An account of a sword-dance called the Bacchu-Ber*, 
 performed at Cervieres, is given in a book on the district 
 of the Hautes Alpes, published at Paris in 1820. The dancers 
 are nine, eleven or thirteen in number ; the swords are broad, 
 short and pointless. A special tune is used. 
 
 The dancers form a circle hilt-and-point : they lay down 
 their swords radiating outwards from the centre ; each salutes 
 toward the right, beginning with the leader : then the swords 
 are picked up, the hilt-and-point circle formed again, and 
 they dance round. They make movements which bring each 
 dancer's right wrist beneath his left elbow and his left wrist; 
 in front of his hip, " execute a pas de deux towards the left,"! 
 and so return to the hilt-and-point circle. After this, led byl 
 the leader's left-hand neighbour, all pass, without loosing, 
 imder the leader's sword : at the end the leader turns roimd 
 and takes up the same position as the rest. Next " all make 
 a movement of the heels, at the same time raising the left 
 hand above the head so as to place their neighbour's weapon 
 on their right shoulder " — apparently an inversion of tb 
 usual hilt-and-point shouldering movement. 
 
 Then " the choragus (leader) after returning to his previous 
 position, moves into the centre, and always continuing tc 
 hold the Lilt and point of the two swords, he raises boti 
 hands to the level of his head ; the others all crowd rounc 
 him, doing the same with their weapons. The choragus ther 
 puts the two swords he holds on each shoulder ; the othert 
 place theirs upon them, so that all the swords are crossec 
 round his neck in a horizontal position. The dancers, wher 
 thus all grouped round the choragus, make several turns 
 or movements to the left and jump about in time to th( 
 music. The choragus then brings his two swords dowi 
 in front of him, and stands with his arms crossed, holding 
 always the point of the one and the hilt of the other weapon 
 the rest follow his example and return to their positions." 
 
 "Translated by Mrs. J. C. Murray Aynsley, Folk Lore Journal v. (1887 
 pp. 312-314. 
 
INTBODUCTION. 21 
 
 A figure follows in which the dancers break-up, apparently, 
 into groups, various frames and triangles being formed with 
 the swords. Finally all return to position and end with 
 " a Pyrrhic salute "—whatever that may be. 
 
 Of the English accounts by far the most precise and most 
 important is that given by Sir Walter Scott in a note to 
 " The Pirate." Scott derived it from a copy of " a very old 
 manuscript " made by William Henderson of Papa Stour, 
 one of the Shetland Islands. Hibbert, in his Description 
 of the SJietland Islands (Edinburgh, 1822), published a 
 version of the same manuscript with alterations and 
 interpolations. 
 
 The performance begins with a long prologue recited 
 by the Master in the character of St. George, in which 
 the dancers are described and introduced as in the Kirkby 
 and Earsdon dances. Including the Master, the dancers are 
 seven, bearing the names of the Seven Champions of 
 Christendom. 
 
 The account of the dance itself is so interesting that it 
 merits transcription in full. Scott's text is given, with 
 Hibbert's variations, which are not without their value, 
 in square brackets. 
 
 , " The six stand in rank with their swords reclining on 
 itheir shoulders. The Master (St. George) dances, and then 
 I strikes the sword of James of Spain, who follows George, 
 'then dances, strikes the sword of Dennis, who follows behind 
 James. In like manner the rest — the music playing — swords 
 as before. After the six are brought out of rank, they and 
 the master form a circle and hold the swords point and hilt. 
 j[The Champions then extend their swords out at full length, 
 when each of them is seen to grasp his own sword with his 
 right hand, and the point of his neighbour's sword with his 
 'Left hand; and being thus formed into a circle, hilt and 
 point, as it is named — ] This circle is danced round 
 j twice. The whole, headed by the master, pass under 
 bhe swords held in a vaulted manner. They jump over the 
 
 B 
 
22 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 swords. This naturally places the swords across, which they 
 disentangle by passing under their right sword [ — each dancer 
 passing under his right-hand sword] . They take up the 
 seven swords, and form a circle, in which they dance round. 
 [A single roundel, hilt and point, is then performed as 
 before.] 
 
 " The master runs under the sword opposite, which he 
 jumps over backwards. The others do the same. He then 
 passes under the right-hand sword, which the others follow, 
 in which position they dance, until commanded by the 
 master, when they form into a circle and dance round 
 [swords tended and grasping hilt and point] as before. 
 They then jump over the right-hand sword, by which means 
 their backs are to the circle, and their hands across their 
 backs. They dance round in that form until the master calls 
 ' Loose,' when they pass under the right sword, and are in a 
 perfect circle. 
 
 " The master lays down his sword, and lays hold of 
 the point of James's sword. He then turns himself, James, 
 and the others, into a clew. When so formed, [the swords 
 being held in a vaulted position] , he passes under out of the 
 midst of the circle ; the others follow ; they vault as before. 
 After several other evolutions, [a repetition of all or part 
 of the movements already described then ensues] , they throw 
 themselves into a circle, with their arms across the breast. 
 They afterwards form such figures as to form a shield of their 
 swords, and the shield is so compact that the master and his 
 knights dance alternately with this shield upon their heads. 
 It is then laid down upon the floor. Each knight lays hold 
 of their former points and hilts [of the hilt and point which 
 he before held] with their hands across [and placing his 
 hands across his breast] which disentangle by figure 
 directly contrary to those that formed the shield [extricates 
 his sword from the shield by a figure directly opposite to 
 that by which it had been formed] . This finishes the 
 BaUet." 
 
INTBODUCTION. 23 
 
 R. Willan's description of a West Yorkshire rapier-dance, 
 referred to in Chapter H., on the word " rapper," may here 
 for its valuable details be quoted nearly in full. 
 
 " At merry nights and on other festive occasions, they are 
 introduced one after another by the names and titles of 
 heroes. ... A spokesman then repeats some verses in praise 
 of each, and they begin to flourish the rapier. On a signal 
 given, all the weapons are united or interlaced, but soon with- 
 drawn again, and brandished by the heroes, who exhibit great 
 variety of evolutions, being usually accompanied by slow 
 music. 
 
 " In the last scene, the Eapiers are united round the neck of 
 a person kneeling in the centre, and when they are suddenly 
 withdrawn, the victim falls to the ground ; he is afterwards 
 carried out, and a mock funeral is performed with pomp and 
 solemn strains." 
 
 The text of a Durham sword-dancers' song and interlude 
 (referred to above) is given by Bell in Ballads and Songs of the 
 Peasantry of England. Unfortimately his description of the 
 dance itself consists only of a few superficial observations on 
 its ingenuity and the complexity of its figures. 
 
 The song is an introduction-song delivered by the Captain. 
 The characters introduced are a Squire's Son, a Tailor, 
 a Prodigal, a Skipper, a Jolly Dog, and the singer himself, 
 whose " name it is True Blue." These are accompanied by 
 a "Bessy," who is decorated with a hairy cap and a fox's 
 brush dependent. Two more personages, a Parish Clergyman 
 and a Doctor, appear in the interlude. 
 
 The song is followed by the dance, at the end of which 
 " all the actors are seen fighting." The Parson intervenes and 
 is killed. The interlude consists of his resuscitation by the 
 " ten-pound Doctor," and concludes with a general dance. 
 
 A Wharfedale sword-song in the same collection introduces 
 Captain Brown, Obadiah Trim the Tailor, a Foppish Knight, 
 Love-ale the Vintner, and Bridget and Tom, the singer and 
 his wife. 
 
24 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 In Ellis's Brand (ed. 1849, i. 513), a brief account of 
 North Eiding sword-dances from the Gentleman's Magazine 
 for May, 1811, is given. Here the troupe consists of six 
 youths dressed in white with ribbons, a " Bessy " and a 
 Doctor. A kind of farce is acted : the Bessy interferes while 
 they are making a hexagon with their swords, and is killed. 
 The Doctor's part is obvious, though not stated. 
 
 Wallis's mention of the sword-dance in his History of 
 Northumherland contains only one point of value— that the 
 chief character, who did not dance, generally wore a fox's 
 skin on his head, with the brush hanging down his 
 back. 
 
 Another song-text from Houghton-le- Spring is given by 
 Henderson {Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties, pp. 68-69). 
 The characters are King George, a Squire's Son, Little Foxey, 
 the King of Sicily and a Pitman. These are accompanied 
 by two grotesques, the " Tommy " (singer of the song), who 
 wears a chintz dress with a belt, with a fox's head for a 
 cap, and the skin hanging below his shoulders, and the 
 " Bessy," clad in a woman's gown and a beaver hat. 
 
 The sword-play acted by the "Plow Boys or Morris 
 Dancers " at Eevesby in Lincolnshire in 1779*, is a more 
 elaborate affair. The characters are the Fool, his Five-Sons, 
 Pickle-Herring, Blue Breeches, Pepper Breeches, Ginger 
 Breeches, and Mr. Allspice — and one woman (acted by a man) 
 named Cicely. Two of the actors double their parts as a 
 Hobby Horse and a Wild Worm, which make a transitory 
 appearance. The action falls into two parts ; the death of 
 the Fool and the wooing of Cicely. Li the first the Fool, 
 after some primitive comedy, is killed by his sons "for his 
 estate." In the second he comes to life again (without a 
 doctor's aid), immensely rejuvenated, competes with his sons, 
 who now appear as the Lord of Pool, the Knight of Lee and 
 so forth, for the love of the lady, and eventually carries 
 her off in triumph. Several dances are interspersed in 
 
 * Text printed in Folk Lore Journal, vii, (1889), pp. 337-353. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 the play, including "the Sword-Dance, which is called 
 ' Nelly's Gig." " 
 
 A foreign variant may end the list. This is a Harz-district 
 sword-play, in which the sword-dance, though still present, 
 is at a very low ebb. The characters are the Kings of 
 England, Saxony, Poland, Denmark and Morocco ; Hans, 
 a servant ; and Schnortison, the treasurer. The several 
 introductions are made by the King of England in the usual 
 stereotyped style. Last comes Schnortison, who is tried and 
 condemned to death by the same king for rifling the 
 collecting-box. The four other kings make a cross with 
 their swords, upon which Schnortison steps : Hans hits 
 him over the head with a wooden sword, and he falls for 
 dead ; he quickly, however, comes to life again, and the 
 display ends with a round dance. 
 
 A comparison of the foregoing records with the descriptions 
 of existing dances in this book will show that the sword- 
 dance has altered little in the last four hundred years, 
 and differs little locally, considering the wide area in which it 
 has been found. Some of the features of the ancient dance 
 have no doubt disappeared, and others have been modified, 
 but many of its most typical figures have come down to us 
 practically unaltered, and its essential unity runs through 
 variants separated, in point of space, by half a continent. 
 
 Dancing in file or ring, linked hilt and point, is remarkably 
 persistent from the earliest to the latest examples. Of 
 the figures, common to Kirkby and Grenoside " Your-Own- 
 Sword " is found in the Ditmarschen and Shetland dances ; 
 " Single-Under " apparently in the Bacchu-Ber. The 
 Grenoside "Keel" occurs in Ditmarschen. The Clash is 
 as old as Olaus Magnus ; so too is the increase of speed that 
 marks the ending of the Grenoside dance. 
 
 But most persistent, striking and characteristic by far 
 is the figure called variously the Rose, the Glass, the Shield, 
 the Lock or the Nut (Knot). In all variants at all periods it 
 occurs in some form. The method of tying it is not stated. 
 
26 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 the Shetland description alone suggesting a process similar to 
 that of the Swalwell and Earsdon dancers. 
 
 It is variously applied. Sometimes one of the performers 
 is hoisted on it, as at Nuremberg in 1600, and in Ditmarschen : 
 sometimes crowned with it, as in the Shetland dance, where 
 all in turn dance with it on their heads, and at Kirkby to-day. 
 Sometimes it is formed round someone's neck ; so at Uhn, 
 in the West Eiding rapier-dance, in the Bacchu-Ber, at 
 Grenoside and probably at Eevesby, as will be shown 
 presently. 
 
 It takes to itself a whole important section at the beginning 
 of the Grenoside dance, forms the climax at Kirkby, and 
 emerges as the end and aim of every figure in the Swalwell 
 and Earsdon dances. 
 
 To the question of its significance we shall return. 
 
 Meanwhile the next salient point is the presence of drama 
 in some degree, from its minimum in the mere song by one 
 of the characters, introducing and naming the dancers, to its 
 maximum in the elaborate play at Eevesby. The dancers,, 
 even when they only dance, are yet personifications, bearing 
 often some popular or local label — Squire's Son, Tailor, 
 Skipper, Pitman and so forth — or a quaint appellation 
 such as Little Foxey or the Jolly Dog. Where we find 
 heroic figures — saints, as in the Shetland version ; kings, as 
 in the Harz play ; or sometimes modern celebrities, as 
 Wellington, Elliott or Nelson— hterary influence is to be 
 suspected. Perhaps even the spice-box nomenclature of the 
 Eevesby play is hardly of the folk. The Seven Champions 
 at least must derive from the collection of their legends first 
 published by Eichard Johnson in 1596. 
 
 But the really essential point is that whenever this element 
 of drama rises into the form of a play however rude, the 
 central incident of this play is the death, or death and 
 resurrection of one of the characters. In two examples this 
 death is brought into direct relation with a special figure, the 
 hexagon, Rose, or Lock. A detailed examination of the 
 
INTBODUCTION. 27 
 
 mummer's play is not within the scope of this vohime : 
 it must sufBce to say that in all recorded versions, however 
 degenerate, known to the writer, this death and resurrection 
 of one of the characters is again the central incident. It is 
 here that the sword shows itself the constant and indispen- 
 sable property of the mumming play, and here too that the 
 sword-dance in its dramatic element shows the closest affinity 
 with it. But it is also on the dramatic side that the sword- 
 dance, at least in the types of its supernumerary persons, is 
 also in close touch with the Morris-dance. 
 
 In the sword-dances described in this volume, these 
 characters vary between Captain alone at Grenoside, Captain 
 and Fool at Kirkby, Captain and Bessy in both Tyneside 
 dances; Bell's account gives Captain ("True Blue") and 
 Bessy ; Henderson's, two grotesques, a Tommy and Bessy. 
 Moreover that this pair (man and woman) is or has been the 
 prevalent type, is shown by the fact that the sword-dancers in 
 Northumberland not so long ago received (not from them- 
 selves) the general appellation of " the Tommies andBessies." 
 Now in the present-day Morris-dance the Fool or Squire 
 is invariable (is the Squire's Son in two of the sword-dance 
 versions a trace of the latter name?) and so until quite 
 recently was a man-woman called the Moll, or occasionally 
 Maid Marian. That these two have persisted together, in 
 spite of the mating of the Woman sometimes with other 
 characters, notably with the so-called Friar, and later with a 
 Robin Hood intruded from ballad literature, seems to show 
 that they have an essential relation to each other and an 
 essential place in Morris customs. Fool and Woman are 
 both seen in the Abbots Bromley dance ; a pair called 
 King and Queen at Winster in Derbyshire : indeed the 
 Lord and Lady or King and Queen, are so well known in 
 festivals of this kind that it is useless to multiply 
 instances. 
 
 As to the name Maid Marian, it may be suggested that 
 Robin Hood, the popular ballad hero, intruding into seasonal 
 
28 8W0BD DANCES. 
 
 festivals, as have other heroes, robbed some older character 
 of his rights in the Moll or Malkin, whose name then took 
 the literary form, under the influence perhaps of the old 
 French trouvere-3.ra,m.a " Le Jeu de Eobin et Marion," and 
 she in her turn intrudes into the later form of the ballad- 
 legend of Robin Hood. 
 
 In this pair of characters we have at least another very 
 clear point of contact between the sword- and Morris-dances. 
 
 It now remains for us to see whether we can find anything 
 in the sword-dance to indicate its derivation from one of the 
 old nature-rites. 
 
 If such an indication exists, we should prima facie expect 
 to find it in the most conspicuous and characteristic figure of 
 the dance, which is undoubtedly the figure in which the 
 swords are interlaced. This, as above shown, is persistent in 
 all recorded forms and has a most important place in the 
 dances described in this book. 
 
 Now the meaning of this curious figure will be evident 
 enough if we concentrate our attention on the Grenoside 
 dance, where the incident is found perhaps in its most 
 elaborate form. Here, I contend, only one interpretation is 
 possible, namely, that it is a mimic decapitation. It would, 
 indeed, be difficult to devise a more vivid representation of 
 such a scene. We have the Captain with the swords 
 interlaced about his neck, kneehng down in the midst of the 
 ring. The dancers solemnly march or dance round him. 
 At the climax of the figure they simultaneously and vigorously 
 draw their swords across his neck ; there is a grinding clash 
 of steel, and the Lock is disentangled. So realistic is the 
 scene in actual performance, that when I first saw it I should 
 not have been surprised if. the Captain's head had toppled 
 from his shoulders and rolled to the floor 1 
 
 Moreover the semi-animalization of the Captain by the 
 wearing of an animal's skin and head upon his helmet is so 
 unmistakably a trait of primitive religion, that we need have 
 no hesitation in seeing here not so much a mock execution 
 
INTBODUGTION. 
 
 29 
 
 as a mock sacrifice, reproducing in mimicry the slaughter of 
 the victim in an old nature-rite. 
 
 But for the moment it is the interpretation! of tha figure as 
 a death at all, that must occupy us. ' The strongest 
 confirmation is that of the Eapier Dance noticed above. The 
 same action is described in unmistakable terms, and then 
 '•a mock funeral" of the victim "is performed with pomp 
 and solemn strains." Here at least there is hardly room for 
 error. , 
 
 Granting however that it is only in these two dances that 
 our interpretation is irresistible, we can nevertheless, now 
 that we possess the clue, glean some corroboration from 
 other sources. 
 
 An examination of the text of the Eevesby Play will, 
 I think, reveal the fact that the Fool is there killed in the 
 same way. The Lock seems to be formed three times in the 
 course of the play. The first time it is exjiressly stated 
 '• they lock their swords to make the Glass," wilth which the 
 Pool plays, finally throwing it down and jumping on it, 
 whereupon it is disentangled. This is the siignal for the 
 announcement that he must die. He kneels dojwn " with the 
 swords round his neck" to say his last words. i Finally the 
 dancers " draw their swords, and the Fool falls on the floor." 
 
 Now whatever may be thought of the vague pprase, " with 
 the swords round his neck," it is obvious that "draw their 
 swords " does not mean the action of unsheatjhing, but of 
 drawing their swords across his neck. The fi^st attempt, 
 however, is abortive : he must be killed over | again : the 
 swords are once more put round his neck ; the danjcers sing: — 
 
 " Good People all, I pray you now behold ', 
 Our Old Fool's Bracelet is not made of Gtold, 
 But it is made of Iron and Good Steel "-L 
 
 and this time the Fool falls dead. Is it too muc 
 
 h to see in 
 
 the collective term " Bracelet " applied to the swords at this 
 
 point another name for the Lock? And if th 
 
 e Lock is 
 
30 
 
 8W0BD DANCES. 
 
 so used now, we ^<na,j conclude it was so before. Taken apart 
 from the Grenoside figure and the Eapier dance, this would 
 be flimsy enough : with them it grows significant. 
 
 Again the Earsdon custom, now disused, of " hanging the 
 Betty," as described hereafter (p. 82), seems to reproduce the 
 same idea in a form very slightly different. But as striking 
 support as any i|j derived from the record of a Spanish sword- 
 dance (17th cemtury), quoted by Miillenhoff,* one of the 
 figures of which/ was called the degollada (beheadal) "because 
 they encircle their leader's neck with the swords." 
 
 Let us admits that but for the evidence of the Grenoside 
 dance, the Rapiter dance, the degollada, and in a lesser degree 
 of the Earsdon; dance and the Eevesby Play, it would have 
 been fanciful indeed to see in the ordinary Eose figure any 
 certain index? of a mimic decapitation. A more probable 
 explanation Would have been the survival of some ancient 
 coronation ce:pemony. For the locked swords placed on the 
 head, as in tab Shetland Islands and at Kirkby, might mean 
 a crowning, fcut could not by any stretch of imagination, 
 be taken to indicate a beheadal. We may however fairly 
 argue that, the meaning of the ceremony once forgotten, 
 spectacular considerations might easily account for the change 
 from shoulders to head, but it would be far harder to explain 
 the reverse change from head to shoulders, had crowning 
 been the original idea. As for the old variants in which 
 someone is |ioisted upon the swords, it is impossible to do 
 more than 'hazard a conjecture. Those who prefer the 
 crowning thjeory will see in it a parallel usage, the elevation 
 of victor or ^ing ; but if a sacrificial idea be admitted, it may 
 at least be no less reasonably connected with the adoration of 
 a diviner vie(tim not unknown in primitive rites. 
 
 And now it may be said, assuming that a killing is proved, 
 all these ijistances point on the whole to the killing of a. 
 human victim : even the form of the figure itself suggests it : 
 
 * In a suppiemeutary article, Zeitschrift fiir deutaches Alterthwm, sviii., 11. 
 
INTBODUGTION. 31 
 
 what then is the relation between such a sacrifice and 
 the sacramental" type, with an animal victim, discerned 
 already in certain Morris-customs ? 
 
 Now it was stated above that in the most primitive 
 religions, the god, the clan, and the sacred animal were 
 kinsmen. As a corollary animal life was as sacrosanct as 
 that of the human clansman — even more so when the animal 
 was regarded as mysteriously sharing in a divine life. To kill 
 such a being for your own private use was murder of a heinous 
 kind. Yet a holy animal might be killed (the whole clan 
 taking the responsibility) for a sacramental purpose. Even 
 so however the killing was very naturally a matter of a deep 
 religious horror which impressed itself on the ceremonial. 
 Time lapsed : animal life was no longer held so sacred 
 as that of man, and possibly the idea of oblation was 
 encroaching on that of sacrament. But ceremonial, always 
 conservative, tenaciously maintaining the forms associated 
 with the awfulness of the victim, led to a misconception. 
 It was inferred that the original and perfect offering had 
 been a man, for which the animal was a substitute ; and 
 thus grew up the custom of killing a human victim as a 
 piacular sacrifice — a special sin offering in times of stress and 
 peril — a return, as it was conceived, to the more perfect 
 victim, which made atonement more certain. And now, as 
 might be expected, the idea of oblation in such rites made 
 great strides, while the sacramental idea receded. A further 
 development was that of the occasional piacular sacrifice into 
 an annual rite. It is such a sacrifice, in the mimic form to 
 which time and civilization have reduced it, that we incline 
 to see in the sword-dance ceremony of the Lock. 
 
 To return to the ancient sacrifice in another aspect, we 
 may remark that those tenacious ceremonies expressive of 
 religious horror at the killing continued to be observed. 
 Every sign of mourning and woe had preceded and accom- 
 panied the slaying of the animal-divine victim, and they still 
 attended the slaughter of the human-divine. But the 
 
 Sword Dances.— Novello. 
 
32 SWORD DANCES. 
 
 mourning was not of sorrow, but of fear — the dread of a 
 community on the brink of an awful act. The deed done, 
 and the atonement accomplished, the relieved worshippers, in 
 u sudden revulsion Of feeling, abandoned themselves to 
 extravagant expressions of joy. But meanings were again 
 forgotten : the mourning was interpreted as sorrow at the death 
 of a deity, the revelry as joy that the divine was not really dead. 
 And so arose a whole class of myths of gods dying and resurgent. 
 And since the gods were nature powers, this death and 
 resurrection in myth and ceremony was connected with the 
 autumn death and spring birth of the world — annually the 
 solemn and babarous rite shewed forth the yearly wax and 
 wane of life, and was mystically identified with it. And now 
 religion, in the minds of the simple, suffers the encroachment 
 of an idea belonging strictly to primitive magic : the principle 
 that the best means of producing an effect otherwise beyond 
 man's control, is to give the best imitation humanly possible. 
 The rite helped nature ; nature was in a measure dependent on 
 the rite. And so on this intrusive magical and mimetic 
 footing, sacrifice and ceremony lingered on, the form outlived 
 the reality of sacrifice — outlived, among simple folk, its 
 meaning religious or magical, till we find its final shape in 
 the death-scene and the doctor of the Mummers' Play. 
 
 And because the primitive mind drew no clear distinction 
 between vegetable and animal fertility, and mating was an 
 obvious symbol, we find in the old myths a god and goddess 
 pair, we find the Fool carrying off Cicely at Bevesby, the 
 same character winning the Fair Lady in the Bassingbourne 
 Christmas Play, and King and Queen, Lord and Lady, 
 Squire and MoU, Tommy and Bessy, paired in festival 
 after festival. 
 
 In Morris, sword-dance, and play we seem to intercept 
 three stages of development, arrested and turned to its own 
 uses by the civilized and social idea of entertainment : in the 
 Oxford Morris-customs the earliest sacramental rite; in the 
 sword-dance the later human sacrifice ; in the mumming play 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 the still later half-magical presentment of nature's annual 
 death and renewal. 
 
 The trace of an animal victim in the rabbit-skin on the 
 Grenoside captain's helmet, and the hairy cap of the formerly 
 " hanged " Betty at Earsdon calls for a word. The 
 animalization of a human victim is not unexampled in 
 ancient rites ; and stands on a different footing from the 
 wearing of a skin by a worshipper either sacramentally or, 
 later, to claim kinship with Ms god in presenting an offering. It 
 was a frequent pious fraud to call an animal victim a man, on 
 the erroneous supposition noted above that the latter was the 
 more perfect victim. In the converse process perhaps we see 
 a converse fraud — the worshipper attempting to hoodwink his 
 own humanity, while suffering it to be overridden by his 
 religious fears. 
 
 The connection of the Horn Dance with the other species 
 of Morris-dance is now easy to see, and the points may be 
 briefly enumerated. There are the six dancers carrying the 
 horns which recall the sacramental wearing of the skin of 
 the sacred and sacrificed animal, to secure the worshipper's 
 participation in the divine life. The bow carried by the boy 
 is the instrument of sacrifice, corresponding to the sword 
 borne elsewhere before the Morris-dancers. A similar bow, 
 if confirmation be needed, is found in a modem Thracian 
 mumming play,* in which one of the actors (some of whom 
 wear hairy caps) is killed with it. Fool, Woman and Hobby 
 Horse also appear in the Horn Dance. The latter grotesque 
 was a constant companion of the Morris-dancers of old 
 time : at Winster it has only recently disappeared : in Kent 
 too, until a few years ago, it was associated with the mummers, 
 under the name of the Hooden Horse. 
 
 Lastly we have indications of the religious origin of the 
 ^ance in the circular and serpentine character of its figures. 
 These characteristic movements are to be found in nearly 
 
 " B. M. Dawkins in Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxvi. (1906), pp. 191-206. 
 
34 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 all dances of a religious type. Vestiges of them perhaps 
 remain in the Morris figures known as the Hey and Whole 
 or Half Eounds, while they form the basis of the movements 
 in the Farandole, the Helston Furry Dance, and many 
 of the processional forms of the Morris-dance, notably 
 Morris Off. 
 
 We see then that in addition to the common name of 
 " Morris " which they bear among the people, the same 
 central idea permeates all the dances and customs we have 
 discussed. Originally expressions of religious belief, in which 
 the idea was as essential as the form, they have passed by 
 various stages and along devious paths into the inspiriting 
 dances and quaint dramas with which we are familiar. That 
 the human instinct of play should draw on these ceremonies, 
 as their meaning waned, for its material, is natural enough, 
 seeing that in them it found, ready to hand, a vehicle of expres- 
 sion easily adapted to its purpose. Out of the debris of ancient 
 faith and cult have issued three forms of folk-art, and as in 
 speaking of the origin we suggested that they represented 
 three distinct religious phases, so in their latter development 
 they exhibit three distinct artistic types. In the Morris-dance 
 proper we have a dance of grace and dignity, instinct with 
 emotion gravely restrained in a manner not unsuggestive of 
 its older significance ; full of complex co-ordinated rhythms 
 of hand and foot, demanding the perfection of unstrained 
 miiscular control. In the mummers' play the feeling for 
 drama, the world-old love of personification, has been the 
 determining factor ; while in the sword - dance with its 
 elaborate dexterity of evolution, its dramatic accompaniments 
 of song and interlude, we find drama and dance combined. 
 Yet it is no mere hybrid : the dance element at least has an 
 admirable austerity that is all its own. 
 
 The theory of origins put forward in these papers is by no 
 means universally accepted. Some for instance hold, with 
 Sir Walter Scott, that the sword-dance was imported into 
 Great Britain by the Scandinavians ; just as others maintain 
 
INTBODUCTION. 35 
 
 thatthe Morris-claneeisderivedfromthe Mporsof Spain. There 
 is no doubt some truth in the statement that the sword-dance 
 is found chiefly in those parts of England where a strong 
 Scandinavian strain exists, but traces of it have been found in 
 Devonshire, Sussex and Hampshire, while from Lincolnshire, 
 perhaps the most Scandinavian of EngHsh counties, the 
 Eevesby Play is the sole record I have so far seen. And 
 again, does not this theory at bottom spring from an 
 assumption that the dance is exclusively Scandinavian? 
 But its wide distribution over Europe hits that assumption 
 hard, especially ita appearance (leaving out of account the 
 contaminated sword-and-buckler form) in Southern France 
 and Spain, where, by the way, Don Quixote saw it at 
 Camacho's wedding, and had often seen it before, but never 
 better done. Yet no one on this latter ground has attempted 
 to attribute it to the Moors. 
 
 The arguments in favour of the Moorish origin of the 
 Morris-dance are more plausible. There is for example the 
 fact that the dance is to be found to this day on both sides of 
 the Franco -Spanish border, and in a form remarkably like 
 that of the present English dance. But this can be 
 explained on the assumption of a common source : it is not 
 necessary to postulate a Moorish or any other national 
 origin. 
 
 Again the accepted derivation of " Morris " from Morisco 
 is held to be a proof. Now in the absence of any satisfactory 
 alternative suggestion we may accept this with equanimity. 
 We need hardly take a long shot with Dr. Frazer* and suggest 
 a derivation from the cognate forms Mars, Mamurius, Morrius 
 (the latter that mythical king of Veii who was traditionally 
 the founder of the Salii), even though Mars in his original 
 character was a vegetation god, and the dance of the Salii, 
 his priests, perhaps a nature-rite parallel to the Morris-dance. 
 
 Rather we will turn to the next argument, the blackened 
 face, in which many see the Moorish influence so strongly 
 
 * The Golden Bough (2na ed.) iii. p. 125. 
 
36 SWOBD DANCES. 
 
 represented. Even now in many parts of England (e.g., South 
 Worcestershire) the morris-men black their faces. The same 
 custom has been traced in Prance, the Netherlands, 
 Germany and other countries : it has been found also in the 
 sword-dance and the mummers' play. Surely whether the 
 usage is derived from some primitive religious notion of 
 disguise, or from the custom of smearing the face with the 
 beneficent ashes of the festival fire, it is more reasonable to 
 suppose with Mr. E. K. Chambers* that " the faces were not 
 blackened because the dancers represented Moors, but rather 
 the dancers were thought to represent Moors because their 
 faces were blackened." To-day we habitually call a man who 
 blacks his face in order to be entertaining, a " nigger.'' 
 " Moor " was our forefathers' equivalent. And as long as we 
 retain this belief we can afford to be calm about the 
 etymology. 
 
 * The MedicBVal Stage, i., 199. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LONG'SWORD DANCE. 
 
 Two varieties of the sword dance are found in England, the 
 long-sword dance of Yorkshire, and the short-sword dance of 
 Northumberland and Durham. 
 
 The two species differ in many important particulars ; in 
 the form of the dance ; the number of the performers ; the 
 principle upon which the figures and evolutions are 
 constructed; and in many matters of a technical nature. 
 These differences, though numerous, are, however, superficial, 
 not fundamental, and although in the tide of evolution they 
 have drifted far apart, the two types still retain many 
 characteristics that testify to their common origin. 
 
 In this chapter two examples of the long-sword dance will 
 be described. 
 
 THE KIRKBY MALZEARD SWORD DANCE. 
 
 Kirkby Malzeard is a small country village in the West 
 Riding, about six miles north of Ripon. The Kirkby men 
 came prominently before the public in 1886 at the Ripon 
 Millenary Pageant where their performances won for them 
 the reputation of being the most skilful exponents of the 
 dance in the neighbourhood. It was from Mr. D'arcy de 
 Ferrars, the Master of the Pageant, that I first heard of 
 them. 
 
38 THE L0NG-8W0BD DANCE. 
 
 An interesting and picturesque description of the Kirkby 
 dance, written by Mr. Keighley Snowden, appeared in 
 The London Magazine for 1906 ; and the Captain's song may 
 be found in "English County Songs," p. 16, with a note 
 giving a description of the costumes worn by the dancers 
 several years ago. 
 
 Performances of this dance used to be given annually 
 between Christmas Eve and the New Year in Kirkby and the 
 surrounding villages, but this practice has now been dis- 
 continued for some years. Usually the dancers performed in 
 the streets, but sometimes they would dance indoors. On the 
 wo occasions they danced to me they first performed by 
 the side of the village cross which, I gathered, was the place 
 where they were accustomed to dance before setting forth 
 on their rounds. 
 
 The leader told me that when the dance was finished and 
 the Fool was going round with his collecting box it used to 
 be their custom to keep the crowd amused by performing 
 "Jolly Lads." This was a hybrid form of entertainment 
 consisting of a series of athletic feats varied with dance 
 figures. As one of the latter, called " The waves of the sea" 
 is the same as "The EoU" in the second part of the 
 Grenoside dance, it is possible that "Jolly Lads " may once 
 have formed an integral part of the Kirkby dance. The 
 survival of this curious dauce movement in both of these 
 villages is interesting, because it is the most characteristic 
 figure of the well-known old English country-dance 
 Trenchmore, noted in Playford's "Dancing Master" 
 (2nd ed., p. 103). 
 
 Of the athletic feats in " Jolly Lads " I saw one example 
 only, and that was executed in the following way. The 
 leader, standing back to back with one of the dancers, 
 stretched his arms backward over his head and placed his 
 hands under the chin of the man behind him. After two or 
 three swaying movements back and forth, the leader bent 
 forward and threw his companion over his head, the latter 
 
KIBKBY MALZEABD SWOBD DANCE. 39 
 
 turning a back somersault and alighting on liis feet face 
 to face with the leader. 
 
 Beginners are recommended to use sticks instead of 
 swords ; they are more easily manipulated, less expensive 
 and less dangerous. Thin bamboo canes of the sort that are 
 used for light curtain rods, or for " sticking " peas, wiU 
 make very suitable weapons if cut to the right length and 
 bound at one end with cord for a handle. 
 
 It is essential that the dance should be performed smoothly 
 and easily and without any apparent fluster or excitement. 
 Although the dancers are usually linked together, hilt and 
 point, by their swords and are thus always close beside each 
 other, the complicated movements should be made without 
 any jostling. Economy of motion is therefore all important. 
 Each dancer must at every moment know exactly whither he 
 is bound and proceed to his destination along the shortest 
 and most direct path. 
 
 When I first saw the dance performed, it looked to me to 
 be one continuous movement. It was not until I had seen it 
 repeated that I realised that it was really compounded of a 
 series of distinct and separate figures, like beads on a string. 
 There should, therefore, be no pauses or gaps between the 
 figures nor, more particularly, between the movements of 
 which they are composed. Every performer must know how 
 to execute each figure from six different positions. Beginners 
 are advised to study one figure at a time, and to master it 
 thoroughly before they pass on to the next one. 
 
 Eight performers take part in the dance — the Captain, the 
 Fool, and six dancers ; and these are accompanied by a 
 musician who plays an accordion. 
 
 COSTUME. 
 
 The dancers wear red flannel tunics, cut soldier fashion, 
 
 and trimmed with white braid down the front, and round the 
 
 collar and sleeves ; white trousers, or overalls, with a red 
 
 stripe, an inch or more wide, down the side of each leg ; 
 
40 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 » 
 
 brown canvas* shoes ; and tightly -fitting cricket caps, 
 quartered in red and white (see plate facing p. 51). Each 
 dancer carries a sword; the leader an ordinary military 
 weapon, and the others swords forged by the village black- 
 smith. The blades of these are of steel, about twenty-five 
 inches long by three-quarters of an inch wide, and fitted 
 with round wooden handles, five and a-half inches in length, 
 without guards. 
 
 The Captain wears a blue coat of flowered cloth, ordinary 
 trousers and a peaked cap of white flannel. Nowadays, he 
 has a sword,' but he used to carry a drum, slung round his 
 waist, upon which he accompanied the dance tune. 
 
 The Fool — now, alas 1 no more — used to wear a cocked hat, 
 or a white wide-wake, decorated with peacocks' feathers. He 
 carried a money-box and was armed with a halberd with 
 which he pressed back the crowd and prevented them from 
 encroaching upon the dancers. He wore a dinner-bell and a 
 fox's tail attached to the back buckle of his trousers, and he 
 used to run about among the spectators crying out : — 
 
 A fox's tail ! a fox's tail I 
 
 It 's noo to be seen,; 
 
 Although I go ragged and wear an old coat, 
 
 Who knows but I'm loved by the Queen ? 
 
 The musician is dressed in his ordinary clothes. 
 
 THE MUSIC. 
 
 The tune to which this dauce is usually, though not 
 invariably, performed is a very striking variant of the 
 traditional air, known as "Brighton Camp" or " The Girl 
 I've left behind me." Another version of the same air 
 was used, many years ago, by the sword dancers of 
 Stillington (Yorks). 
 
EIBKBY MALZEABD SWOBD DANCE. 41 
 
 Fig. 1, The Clash, begins and ends with the first strain 
 of the tune. During the rest of the performance the figures 
 proceed independently of the music, which controls the 
 steps and nothing else. 
 
 THE STEP. 
 
 The step to which all the figures, with the exception 
 of Nos. 1 and 7, are performed, is a very simple one. It 
 may be described as k kind of leisurely tramp, or jog-trot, 
 not unlike that used by soldiers when they advance slowly at 
 the double. The steps fall on the first and middle beats 
 of each bar of the music, and it is imperative that the tramp 
 of the feet should be clearly heard and should synchronise 
 with the rhythm of the tune. 
 
 N.B. — In this and the following dances the expressions 
 "half-turn," "whole-turn," etc., are to be interpreted 
 thus : — 
 
 A whole turn = 360° 
 
 k'^-^ 
 
 A 
 
 A three-quarter turn = 270° ; ^ 
 
 A half-turn = 180° 
 
 A quarter-turn = 90° 
 
 
42 THE LONG-SWORD DANCE. 
 
 THE DANCE. 
 
 The six dancers form up in line at right angles to the 
 audience. The Captaia stands about ten or twelve yards in 
 front and faces them, thus : — 
 
 6 5 4 3 2 1 
 
 f 
 
 Y P 
 
 ■< 
 
 •••^ ^.•-- 
 
 Captain. 
 
 The dancers stand at ease, resting the points of their 
 swords on the groimd, while the Captain, sword in hand, 
 turns to the audience and sings the following song : — 
 
 i. You noble spectators, wherever you be, 
 Your attention I beg and I crave ; 
 It 's all my desire you make a big room, 
 And abundance of pastime you'll have. 
 
 ii. I am the second Sampson, in Judges you'll find, 
 . Who delights in his dar'ling so dear ; 
 What a blockhead was I for to tell her my mind 
 So gallant and quick you shall hear. 
 
 iii. Here comes the man who laid hands upon me ; 
 By him I was grieved to the heart. 
 As I laid asleep on my dear darling's knee 
 the barber was playing his part. 
 
KIRKBY MALZEABD SWORD DANCE. 43 
 
 iv. The second 's his brother, you might think they were 
 twins, 
 I thought by the world they would fight ; 
 When these two Philistians seized on me, 
 You 'd ha' thought they'd ha' ruined me quite. 
 
 V. The third is a man of so much milder blood, 
 Some pity there 's lodged in his breast ; 
 He oftentimes threatened to do me some good 
 But he dursn't for fear of the rest. 
 
 vi. The fourth he comes on like a ranting young lad, 
 He 's like to some majestial stands ; 
 It was he that gave orders that I should be polled ; 
 So they fettered my feet and my hands. 
 
 vii. The fifth is as cruel as cruel can be, 
 The others and him did revise ; 
 
 It was he that gave orders that I should no more see ; 
 So they instantly bored out my eyes. 
 
 viii. The sixth is no better at all than the rest ; 
 He was the first breeder of strife. 
 If any of you there had been in my place. 
 You'd been glad to com'd off with your life. 
 
 ix. These are the six lads that laid hands on me 
 Without the consent of my dear ; 
 But I will come even with them by and bye 
 And so gallant and quick you shall hear. 
 
 X. When they were all merry carousing with wine 
 The first one for Sampson did call ; 
 He pulled down the house and slew all at that time ; 
 So there was an end of them all. 
 
44 THB L0NG-8W0BD DANCE. 
 
 xi. These here six actors bold 
 Ne'er came on't stage before ; 
 But they will do their best, 
 And the best can do no more. 
 
 xii. You 've seen them all go round ; 
 Think on 'em what you will. 
 Music ! strike up and play 
 " T'aud wife of Dallowgill." 
 
 The first two stanzas are addressed to the audience. At the 
 third stanza the Captain walks up to the leader, No. 1, and 
 traces a scroll on the ground at his feet with the point of his 
 sword. No. 1 then leaves the ranks and walks leisurely 
 round in an oval track in front of the other dancers, as 
 shown in the above diagram, dragging his sword on the 
 ground. 
 
 At the beginning of the fourth stanza, the singer 
 approaches No. 2 and traces a scroll on the ground at 
 his feet. No. 2 then follows behind the leader, falling into 
 position as the latter passes in front of him. 
 
 This procedure is repeated during the singing of the next 
 four stanzas, so that on the conclusion of the eighth stanza 
 the six dancers are marching, one behind the other, round 
 the track. 
 
 The Captain then turns to the audience and sings to them 
 the remaining lines of his song. -At the words " Music ! 
 strike up and play," the musician begins the dance air and 
 the performance commences. 
 
 Figure 1.— The Clash. 
 
 The dancers move slowly round in a ring, clockwise, 
 stepping in time with the music and clashing their swords 
 together on the first and middle beats of each bar of the first 
 strain of the music. The swords are held points up, hilts 
 
KIRKBY MALZEABD SWOUD DANCE. 45 
 
 level with the chin, the blades, nearly vertical, forming a 
 cone immediately above the centre of the circle. 
 
 Each dancer then places his sword over his left shoulder 
 and grasps the sword-point belonging to the dancer in front 
 of him. He then faces the centre of the ring, passes his 
 sword over his head and lets his arms fall naturally to 
 his sides. The dancers are now standing in a ring, facing 
 centre, linked together by their swords, each one holding the 
 hilt of his own sword in his right hand, and the tip of his left 
 neighbour's sword in the other. Then, without pause, the 
 following figures are performed. 
 
 It should be noted that the dancers remain linked together 
 by their swords in the manner above described until the 
 penultimate figure of the dance, which is the repetition 
 of The Clash. 
 
 Figure 2. — Single-Under. 
 
 1 i 
 
 ••A •• . i- •. . 
 
 W ! •' 
 
 ... • 
 
 — nii — 
 
 —5 
 
 Nds. 2 and 3 face each other, raise the sword between 
 them (No. 2's), and foi-m an arch, under which No. 1, the 
 leader, passes, followed, in order, by Nos. 6, 5 and 4. 
 Immediately No. 1 has passed under the arch, he raises 
 
46 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 his right arm (see plate facing p. 46), turns to his left, passes 
 outside No. 3, and, keeping his face towards the centre of the 
 ring, dances back to his place, followed by Nos. 6, 5 and 4. 
 
 During this operation, No. 2 crosses his hands, left under 
 light, raises his left wrist as high as possible, and walks 
 a step or two away from the audience. As the movement 
 is nearing its conclusion, he turns completely round on 
 his axis, clockwise, and faces Nos. 3 and 4. 
 
 No. 3, immediately No. 4 has passed under the arch, 
 makes a complete turn under his left arm, counter-clockwise, 
 and faces centre. 
 
 The movement is then repeated five times in the manner 
 above described, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, in turn, playing the 
 part of leader and passing under arches formed, respectively, 
 by Nos. 3 and 4, 4 and 5, 5 and 6, 6 and 1, and 1 and 2. 
 This completes the figure. 
 
 The movement throughout should be continuous; there 
 must be no pause or hesitation between the successive 
 repetitions of the evolution. Each dancer will have, there- 
 fore, to bear in mind, not only the part he is playing at the 
 moment, but the part he is to play in the succeeding 
 repetition. 
 
 In practice it will be found unnecessary for the dancers 
 to return to their original positions in the ring at the end of 
 every movement. It will be enough if, after they have passed 
 outside the circle, they proceed by the shortest path to the 
 place from which they can most easily execute the next, 
 evolution. 
 
 Beginners will probably find that after each evolution 
 the position of the ring has shifted in one direction or 
 another. This tendency must be combated ; it is imperative 
 that the dancers should keep their ground and occupy the 
 same area throughout the dance. This end will be achieved 
 if the right upright (No. 3 in the initial movement of each 
 figure), after executing his part in the movement, takes care 
 to return to his original place. 
 
KIRKBY-MALZEARD SWORD-DANCE. 
 Double-Under. Nos. l and 2 have jtr st passed uhdek the Aroh (see p. 50/ 
 
 ' J 
 
 Pa^^iA.. 
 
 A miwMtifniiffi 
 
 ^ 
 
 .0 
 
 N/' S. 
 
 
 '"% 
 
 ^ 
 
 IHSy 
 
 
 
 ^l 
 
 I'^'-Vlll^' 5;.f 
 
 ^^^^^^H^^^^^j^H 
 
 fi/v 
 
 ' '"' ■..'■ ,' ilT-^'' 
 
 «J i s ' ,;{;», , 
 
 
 ':■-' : " 
 
 "*"^'' ... :'.'-'■''.- '■>'•—' 
 
 KIRKBY-MALZEARD SWORD-DANCE. 
 Single-Under. No. 1 has jdst passed vndek the Arch (aee p. 16). 
 
 Sword Dances.— Novello. D 
 
KIBKBY MALZEABD SWORD DANCE. 
 
 47 
 
 FiGUBE 3. — SiNGLE-OvEE. 
 
 ;;* <: 
 
 >' 6-' ^ ^■•. 
 
 •H 
 
 t. 
 
 V 
 
 • i * • /•■•.' 
 
 Nos. 2 and 3 face each other, stoop down, and hold the 
 sword between them (No. 2's) from twelve to eighteen inches 
 above, and parallel to the ground. The leader, No. 1, then 
 jumps over the sword, raises his right arm, turns to his left, 
 and, facing the centre of the ring, passes round No. 8 to his 
 own place. He is followed, in order, by Nos. 6, 5 and 4, all 
 of whom pass under No. I's sword. 
 
 This movement, so far as Nos. 1, 6, 5 and 4 are concerned^ 
 is the same as in Single-Under, except that the performers 
 leap over the sword instead of passing under it. 
 
 Directly No. 4 has jumped over the sword. No. 3 follows 
 suit, turns to his left, counter-clockwise, and resumes his 
 place, facing centre. 
 
 No. 2 then stands up and is ready to leap over the sword 
 between Nos. 3 and 4. 
 
 As in the last figure, the evolution just described is 
 repeated five times in succession, the dancers, led in turn by 
 Nos. 2, 8, 4, 5 and 6, leaping the swords held by Nos. 3 and 
 4, 4 and 5, 5 and 6, 6 and 1, and 1 and 2. 
 
 On the completion of the last of these repetitions, Single- 
 Under is performed. 
 
48 TEE LONG-SWORD DANCE. 
 
 
 FiGUBE 4.— 
 
 -DOUBLB-SWORD. 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 k 
 
 ^ \ 
 
 1 
 
 A \ 
 -A 
 
 • 
 « 
 •* 
 
 Nos. 2 and 3 face each other, stoop dowrii and hold the 
 sword between them (No. 2's) as in Single-Over. 
 
 No. 1 then jumps over the sword, raises his left hand 
 above hia head, makes a quarter-turn clockwise, and 
 stoops down close to and outside No. 3, placing his sword by 
 the side of the other. He then raises his left hand, i.e., 
 No. 6's sword, as high as possible, thus forming an arch 
 between himself and No. 6. 
 
 No. 4 now jumps over the swords, turns to his left, passes 
 round Nos. 3 and 1, and returns to his place, followed in 
 succession by Nos. 5 and 6. Nos. 4 and 5 pass under No. 6's 
 sword. 
 
 To do this without breaking the ring, as soon as No. 4 has 
 passed under No. 6's sword. No. 3 raises his right arm as 
 high as possible and passes it over his head and round his 
 left shoulder. 
 
 Immediately No. 6 has passed over the swords. No. 3 jumps 
 over them. Whereupon No. 1 stands up, makes a half turn 
 counter-clockwise, and walks backwards to his place. No. 8 
 immediately turns to his left and, following close behind 
 
KIBKBY MALZEABD SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 49 
 
 No. 1, returns to his place as in Single-Over ; while No. 2 
 stands up, raises both arms and turns completely round on 
 his axis counter-clockwise. 
 
 Double- Sword is a very complicated evolution and one, 
 moreover, that is very difficult to perform neatly and, it may 
 be added, to describe clearly in words. The crucial moment 
 is directly after No. 6 has jumped over the swords, when all 
 the dancers except No. 2 are standing close to each other. 
 It will be found, however, that the strain at this point is 
 reUeved immediately No. 8, by jumping over the swords, frees 
 his own right arm and No. I's left. It will be well for 
 beginners to practise the movement very slowly until they 
 have thoroughly mastered its many difficulties. 
 
 As in the last two figures, the evolution is repeated five 
 times, the dancers being led in turn by Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 
 and 6. 
 
 This figure is followed by the performance of Single- 
 Under. 
 
 Figure 5. — Double-Undee. 
 
 .^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 f 
 
 >> 
 
 3... 
 
 ■^ 
 
 • 
 « 
 
 
 • 
 
 / 
 
 
 • 
 
 ( « 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 « 
 
 
 * 
 
 f • 
 
 
 '.h 
 
 
 « \ 
 
 
 
 h\ 
 
 4- 
 
 
 
 .-.6 
 
 M '\. 
 
 5 ,;. 
 
 
 Nos. 1 and 2 advance, side by side, and pass under the 
 sword held aloft by Nos. 4 and 5. No. 1 then raises his 
 right arm, passes under his own sword, turns to his left 
 
50 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 round No. 5, and dances back to his place ; while No. 2 
 raises his left arm and, passing under it, turns to his right 
 and returns, roand No. 4, to his place (see plate facing p. 46). 
 Directly Nos. 1 and 2 have passed under the arch they should 
 face each other, raise the sword between them (No. I's) as 
 high as possible, and pass it over the heads of the other four 
 dancers. 
 
 Nos. 6 and 3, following close behind Nos. 1 and 2, then 
 pass under the arch, side by side, and return to their places, 
 No. 6 following No. 1, and No. 3 following No. 2. 
 
 Immediately Nos. 6 and 3 have passed under the arch. 
 No. 4 turns completely round on his axis clockwise, and 
 No. 5 does the same counter-clockwise. 
 
 This evolution is then repeated five times, the dancers 
 passing successively under swords held up by Nos. 5 and 6, 
 6 and 1, 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4. 
 
 This completes the figure, which is followed, as in previous 
 figures, by Single-Under. 
 
 FiGDBB 6. — Double-Over. 
 
 2 I 
 
 ; • A : ,' ii . ; 
 • : •• : ■ • '• : 
 
 '. • '. ' ■ •" ' ; 
 
 \^ W < ^'■ 
 
 ••^^ > K:!'..J-- 
 
 Nos. 4 and 5 stoop down and hold their sword as in Single- 
 Over. Nos. 1 and 2 then advance, side by side, and leap 
 
6 
 
 g W 
 
 "a 
 
 Ig 
 
 a o 
 a w 
 
 « o 
 
 « s 
 
 H ' 
 CO 
 
 /^_^.. r 
 
 ^^^ ^^' .K 
 
 1 
 
 ^mAmt 
 
 
 
 §1^^ "Wj^H 
 
 H^^^2v^^ 
 
 
KIBKBY MALZEABD 8W0BD DANCE. 
 
 51 
 
 over it [see plate facing p. 51), followed by Nos. 6 and 3, all 
 proceeding to their places as in Double-Under. 
 
 No. 5 then leaps over the sword, turns to his left and 
 resumes his place ; while No. 4 stands up in his own 
 place. 
 
 This movement is repeated five times, the dancers, in turn, 
 jumping over swords held successively by Nos. 5 and 6, 
 6 and 1, 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4. 
 
 On the completion of this figure Single-Under is executed. 
 
 FiSURE 7. — ^YOUB-OWN-SWOBD. 
 
 No. 1, raising his left hand above his head, faces No. 2 
 and jumps over his own sword, turns clockwise and faces, 
 centre. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 then follow suit, each in turn 
 jumping over his own sword in the way above described". 
 
 Directly No. 6 has jumped over his own sword. Single- 
 under is performed without pause, on the completion of 
 which the dancers unlink left hands, follow one another 
 round in a ring and perform the Clash (Figure 1). 
 
52 
 
 THE LONG-SWORD DANCE. 
 
 FiGUKE 8. — The Lock. 
 2' 4 
 
 At the conclusion of the Clash the dancers, now linked 
 together by their swords, draw close together, each crossing 
 his right hand well over his left. Each man then drops the 
 tip of his neighbour's sword and, using both his hands, 
 presses the hilt of his own sword under the point of the 
 sword adjacent to it, viz.. No. I's hilt under No. 5's point. 
 No. 2's hilt under No. 6's point, and so forth. In this way 
 the weapons are tightly and securely meshed together in the 
 form of a double triangle, or six-pointed star, as shown in 
 the above diagram. The process of fastening the swords 
 together must be executed as quickly and smartly as possible. 
 
 The leader then grasps one of the hilts in his right hand 
 and, raising the Lock high above his head, exhibits it to the 
 spectators for a few moments. The Captain (formerly it was 
 
KIBKBY MALZEABD 8W0BD DANCE. 53 
 
 the Fool) then walks into the middle of the ring, where the 
 Lock is placed on his head by the leader. This ceremony 
 brings the dance to a conclusion. 
 
 
 NOTATION. 
 
 
 MOVEMENTS. 
 
 The Captain's song {see p. 42). 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 The Clash {see p. 44). 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Single-Under {see p. 45). 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 Single-Over {see p. 47). 
 
 Pig. 2. 
 
 Single-Under. 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Double-Sword {see p. 48). 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Single-Under. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Double-Under {see p. 49). 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Single-Under. 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 Double-Over {see p. 50). 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Single-Under. 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Your-Own-Sword {see p. 51) 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Single-Under. 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 The Clash. 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 The Lock {see p. 52). 
 
 It has already been stated that the music controls the. steps 
 only and not the figures., It is impossible in the above 
 notation, therefore, to give definite directions respecting the 
 number of bars which the performance of each figure, except 
 the first, should take. This will depend upon the tempera- 
 ment and skill of the dancers and the neatness with which 
 they can execute the many twists and turns that occur in the 
 various figures. And this, of course, is very largely a matter 
 of practice. The important point to remember is that the 
 whole dance, with the exception of the first and last figures, 
 should be performed with the greatest spirit, without pause or 
 hesitation, and at a speed at least as fast as that indicated in 
 the music copy. The only quiet moments occur at the 
 beginning and at the end of the dance. 
 
54 THE L0NG-8W0BD DANCE. 
 
 THE GRENOSIDE SWORD DANCE. 
 
 Gkenoside, from whence the second example of the long- 
 sword dance was derived, is a small hamlet in the West 
 Eiding; within an easy walk of Sheffield. The performers 
 are miners who live in the village or in the neighbouring 
 town of Ecclesfield. The performances used to take place 
 annually on Christmas Eve and the following days, but of 
 late years they have been discontinued owing, so I was told, 
 to the Ludifference shown by the general public. Sometimes 
 the dancers, after performing in their own village, would 
 go round the country for two or three weeks, dancing in 
 the villages and towns that they passed through, after the 
 fashion of the Morris dancers at Whitsuntide in other parts 
 of England. During the six or seven weeks immediately 
 preceding Christmas, regular rehearsals used to be held two 
 or three evenings a week, at which the younger and 
 inexperienced dancers were instructed by the older men, a 
 privilege for which they paid a few pence a week. This, 
 again, is similar to the practice of the Morris men in the 
 Midlands and Southern England. 
 
 The Grenoside men call themselves " Morris dancers," and 
 explain the derivation of the term by saying that the dance 
 originally came to them from the Moor lands further 
 north. 
 
 An interesting and vivid account of the Grenoside dance 
 was published in the Pall Mall Gazette of January 8th, 1885. 
 
 The performers are seven in number, the Captain and six 
 dancers. 
 
 COSTUME. 
 
 The dancers wear loosely-fitting tunics of pink flowered 
 calico, trimmed — back, front and sleeves — with blue and red 
 braid, which is frilled and disposed in straight or waving 
 
GBENOSIDE 8W0BD DANCE. 55 
 
 lines, ovals, circles, &e. These designs, though similar in 
 type, vary considerably in detail and in quantity ; as much as 
 fifty or sixty yards of trimming are sometimes used in the 
 decoration of a single tunic. The collar is of frilled braid, 
 and small bows or rosettes of the same material are sewn on 
 the coats wherever fancy dictates. The trousers are white 
 overalls with a red stripe, an inch in width, down each leg. 
 The small, tightly-fitting peaked caps are made of black 
 velvet, with thin yellow stripes down the gores and a yellow 
 button on the crown. The dancers wear clogs and carry 
 swords similar to those of the Kirkby Malzeard men, the 
 leader using a small cavalry sabre. 
 
 The Captain's dress is substantially the same as that worn 
 by the dancers, except that perhaps his tunic is trimmed 
 rather more lavishly. Instead of a cap, he wears a cloth 
 helmet covered with a rabbit's skin, with the head of the 
 animal set in front, surrounded with four bunches of coloured 
 ribbons. 
 
 The musician plays an accordion and is dressed in his 
 ordinary clothes. 
 
 THE MUSIC. 
 
 The dance is divided into two parts, separated by a short 
 interval, and, unlike the Kirkby dance, it is always performed 
 to the same tunes. Each figure and movement has its own 
 proper music, and must be executed in a prescribed number 
 of bars, in accordance with the directions given in the 
 following descriptions and notation. 
 
 THE STEPS. 
 
 At certain places in the course of the dance the performers 
 stand in position and "step," that is, dance a "double- 
 shufSe " or a " break-down." This " stepping " was not 
 executed in the same way by all the dancers ; but most of 
 
66 
 
 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 them danced a step which they adapted to the different 
 measures in the following way : — 
 
 Liist bar. 
 
 
 etc. 
 
 ^ 
 
 (Bight. T.T. T.T. T. T. T. 
 
 '^'^'iLeft .T. T. ""T.T. ""T.T. "" stamp. 
 
 i 
 
 iLeft .T, 
 Last bar. 
 
 T. T. T. T. T. T. 
 
 =1= 
 
 i^ie: 
 
 T, Btamp. 
 
 stamp. 
 
 Last bar. 
 
 Feet, j 
 
 Bight . T. T. T. T. T. T. 
 
 Left .T. T. T.T. T.T. 
 
 T.T. means a glancing stroke (something between a scrape 
 and a tap), forwards and backwards, of the toe or ball of the 
 foot. T indicates that the foot thus marked is to support the 
 weight of the body. 
 
 In the evolutions, the performers simply walk, or rather 
 tramp, in time with the music. The step is similar to that 
 used in the Eirkby dance, but firmer and less elastic. This 
 rhythmical tramping is one of the most characteristic 
 features of the dance, and is especially noticeable, as well 
 as extremely effective, in the concluding figure where the 
 tempo is gradually increased to breakneck speed. It is for 
 this reason, no doubt, that clogs are worn, and that the 
 Grenoside men always prefer to dance indoors, in a kitchen or 
 inn -parlour with a stone-flagged or sanded floor for choice. 
 
GIi£:NOSIDE 8W0BD DANCE. 57 
 
 THE DANCE. 
 
 The dancers arrange themselves in two rows, facing each 
 other, thus : — 
 
 4> <3 
 
 5> <2 
 
 6> <1 
 
 Audience. 
 No. 1 is the leader. 
 
 The Captain walks up and down between the files and sings 
 the following song : — 
 
 i. ladies and gentlemen I'd have you make room. 
 Contented awhile for to be, 
 It is I and myself that has brought us along, 
 And my trade you will quickly see. 
 
 ii. Whilst in foreign parts we rambled, 
 All both proper stout and tall, 
 Though we passed through many dangers 
 And at length we've caught a fall. 
 
 iii. Wounded by a charming lady 
 Her charms I almost dread ; 
 To die for her I am quite ready. 
 And at length I conquered her. 
 
 iv. Six stout lads have I a-by me, 
 Both of honour and renown ; 
 Christmas time it 's growing nigher 
 And, since we've come in this town, 
 
 v. Since that we have all come hither, 
 Fiddler, draw thy strings, advance ! 
 Play beside us, here to guard us, 
 And these lads will show 'em a dance. 
 
 At the conclusion of his song the Captain moves away from 
 between the files and the following figures are performed. 
 
58 THE LONQ-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 Figure 1. — Eing-and-Step. 
 
 The dancers walk round in a ring, clockwise, one behind 
 the other, and march in time with the music, three steps to 
 the bar. Each man places his sword horizontally over his 
 left shoulder, and grasps the sword-point in front of him in 
 his left hand and places it upon or close to his right shoulder. 
 At the beginning of every bar of the music the swords are 
 transferred from shoulder to shoulder ; that is, each man lifts 
 his own sword over his head, say, from left shoulder to right, 
 and the tip of his neighbour's sword from right shoulder to 
 left, and so on (eight bars). 
 
 The dancers then turn inwards, face centre, and lower their 
 arms to their sides, each man holding the hilt of his own 
 sword in his right hand and the point of his left neighbour's 
 sword in the other. In this position they stand still and 
 " step " (eight bars). 
 
 Figure 2. — The Look (A). 
 
 All turn outwards to the left, face in the opposite direction, 
 and shouldering the swords as before, march round, counter- 
 clockwise (eight bars). They again face centre and stand 
 still in this position, linked together, but not " stepping." 
 Whereupon the Captain moves into the middle of the ring 
 and kneels down, the nearest pair of dancers raising the 
 sword between them to admit him ; while the dancers form 
 the Lock with their swords, in the way described in the 
 previous dance, and place it round his neck (eight bars). 
 
 Figure 3. — The Lock (B). 
 
 The Captain stands up in the middle of the ring, and, 
 holding the Lock in his right hand, raises it high above his 
 head, while turning round very slowly, counter-clockwise ; 
 at the same time, the dancers march round in the reverse 
 direction (eight bars). 
 
GBEN08IDE SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 59 
 
 The Captain once again kneels down and places the Lock 
 round his neck, the dancers marching round him clock^vise 
 (eight bars). 
 
 On the last beat of the final bar of the music, each man 
 suddenly, and with great vigour, draws his own sword from 
 the Lock ; the Captain slips out of the ring, the tune changes, 
 the dancers quickly link themselves together with their swords, 
 in the way previously described, and, without pause, proceed 
 to perform Fig. 4. The dancers remain linked together until 
 the conclusion of the first part of the dance. 
 
 Figure 4. — Single-Sword-Dancing-all-ihe-Way-Kound. 
 
 5y^\ 4 
 
 No, 6 lowers his sword on to the ground, while No. 1, 
 raising his right arm, turns outward to his left and steps over 
 the lowered sword, first with the right foot and then with the 
 left, and faces centre, thus making a complete turn counter- 
 clockwise. He then immediately lowers his own sword, over 
 which No. 2 steps in the same manner. 
 
 Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 follow suit in turn. Each operation 
 should be executed in one bar of the music. ; so that the 
 complete movement takes six bars to perform, During the 
 
 Sword Dances. — Novello. E 
 
60 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 remaining two bars of the strain, the dancers stand in position 
 and " step " (eight bars). 
 
 This evolution is then repeated five times, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 
 and 6 leading off in turn (forty-eight bars in all). 
 
 Figure 5. — Single-Sword-Down. 
 
 5 !f. 
 
 •Mr- 
 
 • (}•'•• 
 
 •'•X 
 
 
 • .-^' 
 
 -? \ 
 
 ^4 
 
 
 • • 
 • * 
 
 ;' ,•' 
 
 > -^ 
 
 
 I- 
 
 
 
 • ■* 
 
 • • 
 
 Nos. 1 and 2 stoop down and lower their sword (No. I's) 
 to within an inch or two of the ground. The dancers then 
 step over it in the following order, Nos. 5, 4, 6, 3. 
 Nos. 5 and 6 turn to the right, pass round No. 1 and return 
 to their places ; Nos. 4 and 8 turn to the left round No. 2 and 
 dance back to their places. 
 
 No. 1 then steps over the sword and turns completely 
 round on his axis, counter-clockwise ; while No. 1 stands up 
 in his place (eight bars). 
 
 It will be seen that the movement is like that of Double-Over 
 in the Kirkby dance, except that the dancers step instead of 
 jumping over the sword, and pass over it singly instead 
 of in pairs. 
 
 The evolution is then repeated five times over swords held 
 in turn by Nos. 2 and 3, 8 and 4, 4 and 5, 5 and 6, 6 and 1. 
 This completes the figure (forty-eight bars in all). 
 
GBENOSIDE SWORB DANCE. 61 
 
 Figure 6. — Single-Swoed-Up. 
 
 5 4 
 
 X \ / >.. 
 
 -^ ^ 
 
 \ / 
 
 ; 6^... *• / ...3 : 
 
 : / "A •• .' is,** ■■ ■. 
 
 ; • • . • .' • • 
 
 ^ A •.. : / .' ^ : 
 
 ■•.•• • ii .'•- 
 
 Nos. 1 and 2 make an arch with the sword between them 
 (No. I's), under which the rest of the dancers pass in the 
 same way as in Single-Sword-Down. Nos. 1 and 2, however, 
 instead of standing still turn their backs upon the audience, 
 move a step or two forward, and turn completely round, 
 each on his own axis, No. 1 clockwise and No. 2 counter- 
 clockwise (eight bars). 
 
 This evolution is repeated five times, the dancers passing 
 under the swords raised in turn by Nos. 2 and 3, 3 and 4, 
 4 and 5, 5 and 6, and 6 and 1 (forty-eight bars in all). 
 
 Figure 7. — Double-Swords-Down. 
 
 y 4.x 
 
 r"^-\ 
 
 "H r 
 
 .3 
 
 •'':■■:••' .•<-. o.-.; / 
 
62 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 This figure is perfoimed in the same way as Double- Sword 
 in the Kirkby Malzeard dance, except that the swords are 
 lowered nearer to the ground, and the dancers step instead 
 of jump over them. 
 
 Figure 8. — Double-Swords-Up. 
 
 '\ 
 
 
 ■■^..-•■' 
 
 Nos. 1 and 2 make an arch with the sword between them 
 (No. I's). No. 6 then passes under it, turns under his right 
 arm, faces No. 1, stands close to and outside No. 2, and 
 makes a second arch with No. 1. Nos. 3, 4 and 5 in turn 
 pass under the double arch, turn to the left and return to 
 their places, Nos. 3 and 4 passing under No. 5's sword. 
 
 No. 2 then passes under the double arch and turns to his 
 left, round No. 6, to position ; No. 6, following close behind 
 him, makes a half turn counter-clockwise and dances back- 
 ward to his place ; while No. 1 makes a complete turn on his 
 axis, clockwise, and faces centre (eight bars). 
 
 This figure is, in principle, very much the same as Double- 
 Swords-Down, except that, of course, the dancers pass under 
 a double arch instead of over two swords. It will be seen, 
 too, that No. 1, at the conclusion of the movement, turns 
 clockwise and not counter-clockwise as in the previous figure. 
 
GBEN08IDE SWOBD DANCE. 63 
 
 The above evolution is (as usual) repeated five times 
 (forty-eight bars in all). 
 
 This concludes the first part of the dance, between which 
 and the second part there is a, short interval. 
 
 PART II. 
 The six dancers stand in two rows facing each other, as at 
 the beginning of Part I. 
 
 The Captain walks up and down between the files reciting 
 the following lines : — 
 
 Since that we have all come hither. 
 And so sweetly I do sing, 
 Now, my lads, you take to singing 
 When you hear these swords to ring. 
 The Captain and his six men then sing " Tantiro " in 
 chorus, still standing in the same position : — 
 
 Tantiro, tantiro, the drums they do beat. 
 The trumpets they do sound upon call ; 
 Methinks music 's here, some bold Captain 's near, 
 March on ! my brave soldiers away. 
 On the conclusion of this song the Captain moves from 
 between the files, and the following figures are danced : — 
 
 Figure 9. — The Eeel. 
 All form ring. Nos. 1, 3 and 5 face, respectively, Nos. 2, 4 
 and 6, thus : — 
 
 4*7 5:3 
 
 V V 
 
 ^6 1-7 
 
64 THE LONG-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 They then dance the Hey or Chain, with swords held 
 vertically, points up, and hands breast-high. Nos. 1, 3 and 
 5 go round counter-clockwise, Nos. 2, 4 and 6 clockwise, 
 passing each other, alternately, by the right and left shoulders. 
 On the first beats of bars one, three, five and seven, that is, 
 whenever the dancers are passing right shoulder to right 
 shoulder, each pair clashes swords, moving them from right 
 to left (eight bars). 
 
 They then form up in two lines, facing each other, and 
 " step " (eight bars). 
 
 These two movements are then repeated (thirty-two bars 
 in all). 
 
 Figure lO. — The Eoll. 
 
 Standing in the same position, each dancer now takes hold 
 of the sword-point of the man opposite to him with his left 
 hand; so that each couple, Nos. 1 and 6, 2 and 5, and 3 and 4, 
 is linked together by two parallel and horizontal swords, 
 thus : — 
 
 4 3 
 
 Nos. 1 and 6 then raise their swords and move down, 
 exchanging places with Nos. 2 and 5, who move up under the 
 swords held by Nos. 1 and 6. 
 
 Nos. 1 and 6 then stoop down, pass under the swords 
 of Nos. 3 and 4 and exchange places with them. At the 
 same moment Nos. 2 and 5 raise their arms and turn 
 completely round, each on his own axis, No. 2 clockwise and 
 No. 5 counter-clockwise. 
 
 This process is continued, each couple moving from one end 
 to the other and back again, until all three couples are once 
 
GBENOSIDE SWOBD DANCE. 65 
 
 again in their original places. At this point, if necessary 
 the dancers pause a moment until the end of the fourth bar 
 (four bars). 
 
 This movement is then repeated (four bars). 
 
 Partners should bear in mind that in moving up or down 
 they must always pass over the middle couple and under the 
 last couple — the top or bottom, as the case may be. The 
 turn is made whenever a couple reaches the top or bottom 
 position, and should occupy the same time as in passing 
 under or over a couple. 
 
 The performers now release each other's swords, form up in 
 two files, as before, and "step " (eight bars). 
 
 The EoU is then repeated twice, the tempo being gradually 
 increased until the greatest possible speed has been attained 
 (sixteen hars). 
 
 This is followed by the "stepping" as before, at thf 
 conclusion of which the dancers close in towards the centre oi 
 the ring, plant their right heels on the ground, toes up, hold 
 their swords up above their heads, and remain posed in this 
 position for a few moments, after the manner of the Morris 
 AU-In (eight bars). 
 
30 
 
 THE L0NG-8W0BD BANCS. 
 
 NOTATION. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 MOVEMENTS. 
 
 Song. 
 
 The Jig. 
 A and B. 
 
 A and B (2nd time). 
 A and B (3rd time). 
 
 The Hornpipe. 
 C and D (3 times). 
 
 C and D (3 times). 
 C and D (3 times). 
 and D (3 times). 
 
 C and D (3 times). 
 
 Part I. 
 Stand in two rows, facing (see p. 57). 
 
 Fig. 1. Ring-and-Step {see p. 58). 
 Fig. 2. The Lock (A) {see p. 58). 
 Fig. 3. The Lock (B) {see p. 58). 
 
 Fig. 4. Single-Sword-Dancing-AU- 
 The-Way-Eound {see p. 59). 
 
 Fig. 5. Single-Sword-Down {see p. 60). 
 
 Fig. 6. Single-Sword-Up {see p. 61). 
 
 Fig. 7. Double- Swords-Down {see 
 p. 61). 
 
 Fig. 8. Double-Swords-Up {see p. 62). 
 
 Interval. 
 
GBENOSIDE SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 67 
 
 NOTATION. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 MOVEMENTS. 
 
 
 Part II. 
 
 The Captain's song. 
 
 Stand in two files, facing {see p. G8). 
 
 Chorus : Tantiro. 
 
 All sing Tantiro, standing in same 
 position {see p. 63). 
 
 The Eeel. 
 
 
 E and P. 
 
 Fig. 9. The Eeel {see p. 63). 
 
 E and F (2nd time). 
 
 The same repeated. 
 
 The Roll. 
 
 
 G and H. 
 
 Fig. 10. The EoU {see p. 64). 
 
 G and H (2nd time). 
 
 The Roll, increasing the tempo {see 
 p. 65). 
 
 All-In. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SHORT.SWORD DANCE. 
 
 It is not easy to account for the substitution of the short 
 sword, or rapper, for the long sword in the Northumberland 
 and Durham sword dances ; nor to determine at what period 
 in the history of the dance the change was effected. The 
 Captain of the Earsdon dancers, Mr. Armstrong, told me, on 
 the authority of an old dancer who died many years ago at a 
 great agey that the rapper was certainly used in his district at 
 least a hundred years ago. Mr. Armstrong also added, on 
 the same authority, that up to fifty years ago the rapper was 
 fitted with two revolving handles, one at each end, so that 
 there was no difference between hilt and point. 
 
 Now, the figures of the present Northumbrian dance cannot 
 be executed with ordinary swords, or with any instruments 
 less flexible than rappers, so that the introduction of the 
 latter cannot have taken place at a later date than that of 
 the present method of dancing. 
 
 But Brand, in his " Popular Antiquities of Great Britain " 
 (1795), after quoting the description of the sword dance given 
 by Olaus Magnus in his " History of the Northern Nations," 
 makes the following comment : "I have been a frequent 
 spectator of this dance, which is now, or was very lately, 
 performed with few or no alterations in Northumberland 
 and the adjoining counties." It will be remembered, how- 
 ever, that in the Scandinavian dance the performers " sheath 
 their swords" and "hold them erect," and this, of course, 
 they could not have done had they carried rappers. It 
 is, at any rate, difficult to believe that Brand intended the 
 words "few or no alterations" to cover such a vast and 
 fundamental change in the form of the dance as the 
 
70 THE SH0BT-8W0BD DANCE. 
 
 substitution of the rapper for the long sword would necessarily 
 involve. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the 
 rapper had not been introduced into the Northumbrian 
 dance when Brand saw it, i.e., some time prior to 1795. 
 
 The evidence of Brand, who was an accurate and trust- 
 worthy observer, is, therefore, in direct conflict with the 
 testimony of Mr. Armstrong. Unfortunately, I do not know 
 of a single written description of a sword dance in which the 
 use of the rapper is unmistakably implied, so that no 
 assistance can be derived from printed sources. 
 
 The Yorkshire sword dance was, however, at one time 
 known as the " rapier dance," for it is so described by 
 E. Willan in his list of "Ancient words used in the West 
 Eiding of Yorkshire" (Archaeologia, 1814, vol. xvii., 
 p. 155). But there is nothing in Willan's description of the 
 dance to warrant the assumption that the flexible rapper was 
 used in its performance. 
 
 The word "rapier" was introduced into this country in 
 the 16th century and was originally used to denote a light 
 and narrow cut-and-thrust weapon, as opposed to the heavy 
 broad-sword. We may assume, moreover, that it was at first 
 pronounced rappier or rapper, more probably the latter ; just 
 as the French drapier was in England pronounced drapper 
 until about a century ago. There is no evidence, apparently, 
 to show when the word became specialized in the sense in 
 which it is now used in Northumberland and Durham. 
 
 There is a further point which presents some diificulty. 
 The invention of the intricate bi-cirele type of dance figure 
 must have been the product of extraordinarily ingenious 
 minds, and it is not easy, therefore, to explain its genesis 
 by any theory of evolution. It would be easier to postulate 
 the direct personal influence of some ingenious individual, 
 and that at a comparatively late period in the history 
 of the dance. The question is a very puzzling one, and I 
 confess that, at present, I have no reasonable or satisfactory 
 solution to offer. 
 
THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 71 
 
 The Northumberland and Durham dances, though extremely 
 interesting, are, it seems to me, in a sense decadent. There 
 is a kind of perverse ingenuity about them, a striving for 
 effect in detail at the expense of broader features, which is 
 very closely parallel to the rather tortured cleverness of art, 
 or of literature, which has begun to go downhill. Markedly 
 decadent, too, are the rappers, subordinated to the purposes 
 of complex motion until they have lost nearly all the 
 character of the sword. Again, what the dance gains in 
 complexity, it loses in the closer massing of the men, due 
 partly to the shortness of the rappers themselves. On the 
 whole, therefore, the Yorkshire dances should, I think, be 
 placed higher in artistic and traditional truth, in spite of the 
 great fascination of the more elaborate figures of the 
 Northumberland dances. 
 
 Whatever its origin and history there is no doubt that 
 the rapper has now completely supplanted the sword in the 
 Tyneside district* It is true that, like other forms of popular 
 and traditional entertainment, short-sword dancing is rapidly 
 dying out. But this is quite a recent phase. There is 
 plenty of evidence to show that within the last ten years it 
 was very generally practised in the neighbourhood of 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne. So far, too, as my own investigations 
 have gone, the dance itself seems to have varied but little. 
 The number of figures that were performed in different villages 
 varied very much, but in every case I noticed that the figures 
 themselves had apparently been drawn from a common 
 stock. 
 
72 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 THE SWALWELL SWORD DANCE. 
 
 SwALWELL is a populous mining village within a few miles of 
 Newcastle, situated on the Durham bank of the Tyne. The 
 Swalwell sword dancers, or guizards as they are often called, 
 perform annually on Christmas Eve and on the following days. 
 Their performance differs from that at Earsdon and every 
 other village I investigated, in that it consists of the dance 
 only, without any acting or singing. I have been told, 
 however, that at one time the performance included the 
 usual introductory song by the Captain with its short 
 mummer-like sequel, both of which were very similar to 
 those presently to be described in the Earsdon dance. But 
 this must have been some time ago, for Mr. J. E. Taylor, a 
 resident in the neighbourhood, assures me that the form of 
 the dance has not materially changed within his recollection, 
 and his memory goes back a great many years. 
 
 . The dancers are five in number, and are accompanied by a 
 Captain and a man dressed in woman's clothes, called the 
 Bessy, Betty, or dirty Bet, who carries a box and collects 
 the money. 
 
 COSTUME. 
 
 The dancers wear white shirts, decorated with red, white 
 and blue rosettes ; a red tie, and a sash or belt of the same 
 colour round the waist ; dark trousers, or, sometimes, white 
 overalls with a red stripe down each leg. They wear nothing 
 upon their heads. I am told that about fifty years ago, 
 instead of trousers they wore breeches and white stockings, 
 with ribbons tied round the knees. 
 
 The costumes of the Captain and the Bessy are shown in 
 the accompanying photograph. 
 
SWALWELL SWOBD DANCB. 73 
 
 Each dancer carries a sword, twenty-eight inches in length, 
 called a rapper. The blade, which is without a point, is 
 made of thin, finely tempered steel, and is twenty-two inches 
 long by one and three quarters wide. At one end a round 
 wooden handle, six inches long, is loosely fitted so as to 
 allow the metal haft, attached to the blade, to revolve freely 
 within it ; upon each side of the other end two thin blocks 
 of wood, two inches long and of the same width as the blade, 
 are firmly rivetted or bound with cord. The rapper is as 
 flexible as a harlequin's wand, to which in shape it bears 
 some resemblance. 
 
 The musician, who is dressed in his ordinary clothes, 
 plays a fiddle. 
 
 THE MUSIC. 
 
 There is no special or traditional air associated with this 
 dance ; any jig tune in 6-8 time will serve, the dancers 
 told me, so long as it can be played at the proper speed 
 (J. =160). 
 
 THE STEPS. 
 
 Throughout the dance the performers stand very close to 
 each other and step, or tramp, in time with the music, 
 taking two short, decided, steps to each bar. At the end 
 of every " Nut," as each section of the dance is called, the 
 performers stand still and " step " as in the Grenoside 
 dance. 
 
 THE DANCE. 
 
 The performers stand in a ring, facing centre, while the 
 fiddler plays through the first strain of the music. On the 
 last beat of the last bar, they clash their swords together 
 (as in the Kirkby dance), and then, taking a quarter turn to 
 
 Sword Dances.— Novello. ¥ 
 
74 
 
 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 the left, each man throws his rapper over his left shoulder 
 and grasps the tip of the sword in front of him. In this 
 position they march round in a ring, clockwise (eight bars), 
 and then, without pause, break into the following figure : — 
 
 Figure 1. — One-Turn-Ofp. 
 
 Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 continue to move round, clockwise, while 
 No. 1, the leader, raises both arms, turns outward to his left, 
 and dances round and outside the ring counter-clockwise, 
 until he comes to his own place, when he turns in and 
 resumes his original position behind No. 5. 
 
 The movement is then repeated four times, Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 
 5, in turn, dancing round and outside the ring in the same 
 way. 
 
 Figure 2.— The Nut. 
 
 No. 1 raises his left arm, turns outward to his left and 
 moves round a half circle counter-clockwise, followed by 
 Nos. 2, 3 and 4, all of whom pass under No. 5's sword. 
 Simultaneously, No. 5, raising his right arm and keeping his 
 face towards the centre, moves round the ring, clockwise, 
 until he meets No. 1 (see plate facing p. 75). 
 
 A new ring is thus formed, in whicli the dancers are 
 
SWALWELL SWORD-DANCE. 
 The Dancers ake about to tie the Nut (see p. 74J. The Leader, No. l, 
 
 18 ON THE extreme BIOHT, AND IS PREPARING TO TURN OUTWARDS TO HIS LEFT. 
 
 ilBADiNa FROM Right to Left the Dancers are standing in the following 
 
 ORDER: NOS. 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 6. 
 
 EAKSDON SWORD-DANCE 
 The Nut (see p. 75J. 
 
8WALWELL 8W0BD DANCE. 75 
 
 standing in reversed order, as shown in the following 
 diagram : — 
 
 The dancers, keeping their wrists raised to chin level, press 
 their hands apart, each man passing his right hand under the 
 left wrist of the dancer on his right, and his left hand over 
 the right wrist of the man on his left. In this way the 
 swords are locked together in the form of a pentacle or five- 
 pointed star (see plate facing p. ,75). This is called the 
 "Nut" or "Knot." 
 
 The leader then raises the Nut in his right hand and holds 
 it high above his head, while all five dancers walk round in a 
 ring clockwise, two steps to the bar, each one placing his left 
 arm upon the left shoulder of the man in front of him 
 (8 bars). 
 
 They now halt, face centre, and " step " while they hold up 
 the Nut, in a horizontal position, well above their heads 
 (eight bars), as shown in the frontispiece. The Nut is supported 
 by all the dancers, each of whom grasps the hilt of his own 
 sword in his right hand, and the tip of his right neighbour's 
 sword in the other. 
 
 The Nut is then untied by reversing the movement by 
 which the swords were interlaced. That is to say, No. 1 
 raises both arms, turns outward to his right and moves round 
 clockwise to his place, followed by Nos. 2, 3 and 4, all of 
 whom pass under No. 5's sword ; while No. 5 raises his 
 
76 THE SHUBT-SWOMD DANCE. 
 
 right arm, moves round counter-clockwise, facing centre, and 
 meets No. 1. . : < 
 
 The dancers are now standing in a ring, facing centre, and 
 linked togetherTiiilt and' point, as in the Yorkshire long-sword 
 dances. This is the normal position in which the dancers 
 should stand at the beginning and end of the figures in this 
 and the following dance. To this rule there is but onia 
 exception, viz., in One-Turn-Off, which, as already explained, 
 the dancers begin and end holding their rappers over their 
 left shoulders. This position', moreover, is maintained at the 
 end of this fig«re only when it is followed by the tying of 
 the Nut ; and that occurs once only in the course of the 
 dance. On all other occasions the dancers at the conclusion 
 of Fig. 1 pass their rappers over their heads, make a quarter 
 turn clockwise and face centre. 
 
 This completes the first of the four sections into which this 
 dance is divided. The first section, or Nut, as it is usually 
 called, consists, as we have seen, of One-Turn-Ofif and the 
 Nut. Each of the succeeding Nuts begins with Sig. 1 and 
 ends with Fig. 2, and contains, in addition, a third figure 
 interposed between them. 
 
 The division of the dance into sections is purely arbitrary, 
 and is done for the sake of convenience and clearness. The 
 movements of the performers throughout the dance are 
 continuous, no pause being made between the successive 
 Nuts, or between the figures of which they are composed. 
 Immediately, therefore, one Nut is finished, the dancers 
 break, without hesitation, into One-Tum-Ofi, which is always 
 the first figure of the next section. 
 
 When a figure, as is usually the case, consists of several 
 repetitions of a movement, the number of such repetitions is 
 determined by the leader, whose privilege it is to call " Nut " 
 and to break into Fig. 2 whenever he thinks fit. He must, 
 however, be careful to time his call so that the tying of the 
 
SWALWELL SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 77 
 
 Nut shall coincide with the end of one strain of the tune. 
 As the two following movements take exactly sixteen bars to 
 perform, each section of the dance, or Nut, will thus begin and 
 end with the first and last bars of one or other of the strains 
 of the music. 
 
 In the third and fourth figures of this dance (and in many 
 of those in the Earsdon dance) the Nut is tied in a different 
 way from that described in Fig. 2, In such cases the special 
 method will always be explained at the end of the figure in 
 which it occurs. 
 
 The distinctive figures of the remaining three Nuts will 
 now be described in their proper order. 
 
 Figure 3. — The Needle. 
 [a,) 
 
 No. 1 raises his left arm, turns outward to his left and, 
 followed by Nos. 2 and 3, moves round in a circle counter- 
 clockwise. Simultaneously, No. 5 raises his right arm, turns 
 
78 
 
 THE SHORT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 outward to his right and, followed by No. 4, moves round in 
 a circle clockwise (see diagram a). 
 
 The dancers are now moving round in two circles, like 
 cog-wheels, at the same rate, but in opposite directions, 
 Nos. 1, 2 and 3 counter-clockwise, and Nos. 5 and 4 
 clockwise {see diagram b). 
 
 At the beginning of every fresh circuit No. 3 crosses over 
 fcom one circle to the other, and dances, therefore, in 
 successive circuits, alternately behind No. 2 and No. 4, as 
 shown in the following diagrams : — 
 
 The leader must be careful to call " Nut" only when No. 3 
 is just entering the right-hand circle, and is about to follow 
 behind No. 2 (see diagram d). No. 1 then continues moving 
 round, counter-clockwise, followed by Nos. 2, 3 and 4 ; while 
 No. 5 moves forward a step or two, makes a three-quarter turn 
 counter-clockwise and faces centre. 
 
 In this and in all figures in which the performers are 
 ihoving round in adjacent circles, it will be necessary for the 
 dancers to keep their hands well above their heads. 
 
SWALWELL SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 79 
 
 Figure 4. — Eight-and-Left. 
 
 giving 
 
 No. 1 raises his left hand, turns outward to his left and, 
 followed by No. 3, moves round in a circle counter-clockwise ; 
 while No. 5, raising his right arm, turns outward to his right 
 and, followed by Nos. 2 and 4, moves round in a circle 
 clockwise. 
 
 At the end of every circuit, each group of dancers crosses 
 over from one circle to the other and moves round in the 
 reverse direction. The track, therefore, described by the 
 dancers is, roughly, the figure 8, by which name this figure 
 is sometimes called. 
 
 The critical moment is when the two groups meet, face to 
 face, at the junction between the loops. The crossing at this 
 point is executed in the following order, Nos. 5, 1, 2, 3, 4. 
 
80 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 The Nut can only be tied when No. 1 is in the right-hand 
 circle and No. 2 has just crossed over into the left-hand 
 circle, the dancers then being in the positions shown in the 
 above diagram. No. 2 then crosses over between Nos. 1 
 and 3 ; whereupon No. 1, followed by Nos. 2, 3 and i, moves 
 round counter-clockwise and ties the Nut in/ the usual 
 manner, No. 5 making a three-quarter turn counter-clockwise 
 and facing centre. 
 
 Figure 5.- — Eank. 
 
 AU face centre and move round clockwise u]^il No. 1 is 
 facing audience, thus : — 
 
 ^Ml**l 
 
 1- 
 
 No. 3 raises both hands and, facing centre, moves to his 
 left ; he passes behind No. 2, stands between Nos. 1 and 2, 
 and faces the audience. Simultaneously No. 4, raising his 
 left arm, turns outward to his left, passes behind No. 5, 
 stands between Nos. 1 and 5 , and faces the audience. 
 
 The dancers are now standing in line, facing the audience, 
 in the following order [see plate facing p. 80) : — 
 
 2 3 14 5 
 
 At the beginning of the next strain of the music, Nos. 1 
 and 2, and Nos. 1 and 5 lower the swords between them 
 (No. I's and No. 5's), over which Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, 
 
SWALWELL 8W0BD DANCE. 81 
 
 jump. In this position all " step " to the end of the strain 
 (eight bars). 
 
 The same swords are again lowered and Nos. 3 and 4 jump 
 backwards over them into their places in the line; after 
 which all " step " till the end of the strain (eight bars). 
 
 Nos. 3 and 4 now lower the sword between them (No. 3's) 
 and No. 1 leaps over it. Then all " step " till the end of the 
 strain, when No. 1 jumps backwards over it into bis place 
 (eight bars). 
 
 The Nut is then tied in the following way : No. 1, raising 
 both arms, moves forward, passes under No. 3's sword and 
 makes a half turn counter-clockwise ; while No. 5 turns 
 completely round on his axis counter-clockwise. 
 
 On completing the last Nut, the dancers form up in line, 
 facing audience. No. 1 stands in the middle and holds up 
 the Nut high above his head in his right hand. This brings 
 the dance to a conclusion. 
 
 NOTATION. 
 
 MOVEMENTS. 
 
 Clash swords and march round in a ring (see p. 73). 
 
 Fig. 1. One-Turn-Off {see p. 74). 
 
 Fig. 2. The Nut {see p. 74). 
 
 Fig. 1. One-Turn-0£f. 
 
 Fig. 3. The Needle {see p. 77). 
 
 Fig. 2. The Nut. 
 
 Fig. 1. One-Turn-Off. 
 
 Fig. 4, Right-a'nd-Left {see p. 79). 
 
 Fig. 2. The Nut. 
 
 1 i,'. 1. One-Turn-Off. 
 
 Fig. 6. Eank {see p. 80). 
 
 Fig. 2. The Nut. 
 
 Form up in line end exhibit Nut {see p. 81). 
 
82 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 THE EARSDON SWORD DANCE. 
 
 The Earsdon guizards perform in public on Christmas Eve, 
 and they hold the reputation of being the best sword dancers 
 in Northumberland. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong, the Captain, danced with them for forty 
 years before he retired and took his present position. He told 
 me that old-fashioned people always caU them "Morris 
 dancers." He explained the derivation of the expression by 
 saying that the dance was originally brought to the Border 
 country by bands of outlaws and sheep-stealers, called " Morris 
 (Moss) troopers," who came from the North and settled down 
 as miners in Northumbria. 
 
 As Mr. Armstrong's memory goes back a long way, he was 
 able to give me a good deal of information respecting the 
 changes that have taken place in the dance during the last 
 fifty years. The Bessy, for instance, used to wear a hairy 
 cap, and when the Nut was about to be tied the dancers 
 would sometimes call out " We'll hang the Betty" ; whereupon, 
 Betty would step into the centre of the ring and the swords 
 would be locked tightly around his throat, while the dancers 
 " stepped " in the way described in the text. Mr. Armstrong 
 also sang to me an older version of the Captain's song and 
 gave me the words of the dramatic interlude which used to 
 follow it. As these are of great interest they will be printed 
 together with the version at present used. 
 
 The performers are a Captain, a Bessy, and five dancers. 
 They are accompanied by a musician, who plays a fiddle. 
 
 COSTUME. • 
 
 The costume which the dancers at present wear is a very 
 elaborate one : crimson plush breeches, white linen shirts, 
 a Zouave jacket of crimson plush edged with gold braid, and 
 a broad Toreador sash. The Captain's dress is the same as 
 that of the dancers with the addition of a cocked hat lavishly 
 trimmed with gold lace {see plate facing p. 97). 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 83 
 
 This elaborate and gorgeous costume is quite a recent 
 innovation and was adopted only a few years ago when the 
 dancers were invited to Alnwick Castle to perform before the 
 late King. 
 
 The older and traditional dress is shown in the frontispiece, 
 which is a reproduction of a picture painted about thirty 
 years ago by Mr. Ealph Hedley. At that time, Mr. Hedley 
 assures me, the dancers wore white shirts decorated with bows 
 and rosettes of coloured ribbons, black breeches of alpaca or 
 satinet, knee-ribbons and striped stockings and shoes tied 
 with ribbons. The Captain wore a wide-awake hat with 
 peacocks' feathers, an old-fashioned tail coat, breeches, and 
 striped stockings. The Bessy was dressed in woman's clothes 
 as shown in the picture. 
 
 The Earsdon dancers carry rappers similar to, but more 
 neatly made and better finished than those used by the 
 Swalwell men. The blades measure twenty-four inches in 
 length, by one and an eighth in width. 
 
 THE MUSIC. 
 
 The music is supplied by a fiddler who i^ dressed in his 
 ordinary clothes. As there is no special traditional tune to 
 the dance any jig in 6-8 time is used that can be played at 
 the required speed (M.M. J. =160). When they were good 
 enough to dance to me the fiddler played " The Threepenny 
 Bit " for the first half of the dance and " The Black-thorn 
 Stick " during the later figures. Their most popular tunes 
 appear to be " The Laird o' Cockpen," " The Irish 
 Washerwoman," " Haste to the Wedding," " The Delight," 
 " Paddy O'Eafi'erty " and "Kitty's Eamble." 
 
 THE STEPS. 
 
 The steps are exactly the same as those used in the 
 Swalwell dance. 
 
84 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 THE DANCE. 
 The performance, as is usual with sword dances, opens 
 with the Captain's song, followed by a few introductory 
 movements leading up to the dance proper, which begins with 
 Figure 1. This introduction, as has been already explained, 
 has undergone some alteration in the course of the last few 
 years. Both versions, old and modern, will therefore be 
 given. 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 (Old Vbbsion.) 
 The dancers stand in line, facing the audience, while the 
 Captain walks round in a circle counter-clockwise, thus :■ — 
 
 In the course of the following song, the dancers, as they are 
 introduced, leave the line, one by one, and fall in and walk 
 behind the Captain. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN'S SONG. 
 
 i. A-rambling here I've comed. 
 Good people for to see ; 
 Five actors I have brought. 
 As brave as brave can be. 
 
 ii. It's Earsdon on the hiU, 
 
 Where the water washes clear ; 
 To Earsdon habitation we belong. 
 And merry we'll appear. 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 85 
 
 iii. The first that I'll call on, 
 He is a pitman bold ; 
 He walks on underground 
 To keep him from the cold. 
 
 iv. The next that I'll call on, 
 It is his heart's desire 
 He hews and puts the coals, 
 The old woman makes the fire. 
 
 V. The next that I'll call on. 
 He is a tailor fine. 
 What think you of his work ? 
 He made this coat of mine. 
 
 \i. He is a tailor fine. 
 
 And a good one to his trade ; 
 He never closed one hole 
 But two for one he made. 
 
 vii. The next that I'll call on, 
 Is Jack upon the deck ; 
 He cooks for our ship's crew 
 And he sells all the fat. 
 
 viii. The next that I'll call on, 
 It is big walloping Tom ; 
 He 's courted two fair women 
 And durst not marry one. 
 
 ix. For if he married one. 
 
 The other he would slight ; 
 And the best thing he can do 
 Is to treat them both alike. 
 
 X. Now I'm going to kill a bullock. 
 Of that I'll make you sure ; 
 We'll kill it in Earsdon Town 
 And divide it amongst the poor. 
 
 Sword Dances.— Novello, G 
 
86 THE SEOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 Directly this song is finished, two of the dancers, Nos. 1 
 and 2, feigning a quarrel, fight with their swords until one of 
 them is wounded and falls to the ground. Whereupon there 
 is-a great commotion and Bessy sings : — 
 An actor he is dead, 
 And on the ground he's laid ; 
 We'll have to suffer for it, 
 Brave hoys, I'm sore afraid. 
 
 No. 3 then sings : — 
 
 I'm sure it 's none of me. 
 And never in my time ; 
 It 's he that followed I, 
 That did this hloody crime. 
 
 Then No. 4 interposes : — 
 
 0, now that he is dead 
 
 And his body it is cold. 
 
 We'll take hiin to the Church yard 
 
 And bury him in the mould. 
 
 The following dialogue then takes place : — 
 No. 5. Doctor ! doctor ! 0, for a ten-pound doctor ! 
 Doctor {enters). - Here am I ! 
 No. 5. How came you to be a doctor ? 
 Doctor. By my travels. 
 No. 5. How far have yon travelled ? 
 Doctor. Through Italy, France and Spain ; and now I've 
 
 come back to cure the diseases in England again. 
 
 Jack ! take a drop of my little bottle, that'll go 
 
 down your thrittle throttle. Eise up ! and fight 
 
 for old England again. 
 
 The wounded man then stands up and shakes his sword ; 
 whereupon Bessy sings : — 
 
 Dance on, my boilny lads, 
 I heard the landlord say 
 He would stand a gallon of beer 
 Before we go away. 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 87 
 
 The dancers then form up in line, facing audience, and the 
 dance proceeds in the way described at p. 89. 
 
 INTEODUCTION 
 
 (Modern Version.) 
 
 The dancers stand in line, facing the audience, each with 
 his sword resting upon his right shoulder, the hUt level with 
 his waist. The Captain and Betty stand at either end of the 
 line, thus : — 
 
 Captain. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Betty. 
 
 The song, which follows, should be sung by the Captain ; 
 nowadays, however, Bessie, being the younger man, usually 
 sings it in his stead. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN'S SONG. 
 
 i. 
 
 Good people, give ear to my story, we have called for to see 
 
 you by chance ; 
 Five heroes I've brought blithe and bonny, intending to give 
 
 you a dance. 
 For Earsdon is our habitation, the place we were all born and 
 
 bred. 
 There are not finer boys in the nation, and none shall be 
 
 more gallantly led. 
 
 ii. 
 'Tis not for your gold or your silver, nor yet for the gain of 
 
 your gear. 
 But we come just to take a week's pleasure, to welcome the 
 
 incoming year. 
 My lads, they are all fit for action, with spirits and courage 
 
 so bold ; 
 They are born of a noble extraction, their fathers were 
 
 heroes of old. 
 
88 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 iii. 
 Now this is the son of brave Elliott, the first youth that 
 
 enters my ring ; 
 So proudly rejoice I to tell it, he fought for his country and 
 
 king. 
 "When the Spaniards besieged Gibraltar, bold Elliott defended 
 
 the place, 
 Soon caused them their plans for to alter ; some died — others 
 
 fell in disgrace. 
 
 iv. 
 Now my next handsome youth that does enter is a boy, there 
 
 are very few such ; 
 His father beat that great De Winter, and defeated the fleet 
 
 of the Dutch. 
 His father was the great Lord Duncan, who played' the Dutch 
 
 ne'er such a prank. 
 That they fled from their harbours, ran funkin', and they fled 
 
 to the great Dogger Bank. 
 
 V. 
 
 This one is the son of Lord Nelson, that hero that fought at 
 
 the Nile ; 
 Pew men with such courage and talent, the Frenchmen he 
 
 did them beguile. 
 The Frenchmen they nearly decoyed him, but the battle he 
 
 managed so well. 
 In their fortress he wholly destroyed them, scarce one got 
 
 home for to tell. 
 
 vi. 
 Now my next handsome youth that does enter is a boy of 
 
 ability bright ; 
 Five thousand gold guineas I'd venture that he like his father 
 
 would fight. I 
 
 At Waterloo and Tarryvary, Lord Wellington made the 
 
 French fly ; 
 You scarcely can find such another, he'd conquer or else he 
 
 would die. 
 
1!:ABSD0N sword DANCE;- 89 
 
 Vll. 
 
 Now my last handsome youtli that does enter is a boy that is 
 
 both straight and tall ; 
 He is the son of the great Buonaparte, the hero that cracked 
 
 the whole all. 
 He went over the Lowlands like th,under, made nations to 
 
 quiver and'quake ; 
 Many thousands stood gazing in wonder at the havoc he 
 
 always did make. 
 
 viii. 
 Now you see all my five noble heroes, my five noble heroes 
 
 by birth, 
 And they each bear as good a character as any five heroes 
 
 on earth ; 
 If they be as good as their fathers, their deeds are deserving 
 
 records ; 
 It is all the whole company desires to see how they handle 
 
 their swords. 
 
 At the end of each stanza, the singer pauses for a moment 
 while the dancers clash their swords together, Nos. 5 and 4 
 and Nos. 1 and 2 moving towards each other so as to get 
 within reach. 
 
 At the beginning of the third stanza, No. 1 moves forward 
 two paces and remains there until the end of the song. In 
 the four following stanzas Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, 
 follow suit. 
 
 Directly the song is finished, the fiddler strikes up, the 
 dancers form a ring, one behind the other, hold their swords 
 points up, hilts breast high, and place their left arms over 
 the left shoulders of those in front of them. Standing in this 
 position they " step " (eight bars). 
 
 On the last beat of the last bar they clash their swords 
 together and place them on their left shoulders, each man 
 grasping in his left hand the tip of the sword in front of him. 
 
90 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 In this position they forthwith break into the following 
 figure without pause. 
 
 Figure 1. — Single-Guard. 
 
 This is danced in exactly the same way as One-Turn-Off 
 (see p. 74). 
 
 Figure 2.— The Nut. 
 
 This figure begins with the tying of the Nut, which is done 
 in precisely the same way as in the Swalwell dance {see p. 74). 
 
 The dancers then form up in line, facing the audience, and 
 " step," the leader in the middle holding the Nut in his right 
 hand high up above his head (eight bars). 
 
 They then form ring, facing centre, and raise the Nut above 
 their heads, in a horizontal position {see frontispiece), each 
 man holding the hilt of his own sword in his right hand, and 
 the tip of his right neighbour's sword in the other. In thii 
 position they " step " (eight bars). 
 
 On the last beat of the last bar they lower the Nut and 
 "break-away," that is, they loosen the swords with a sharp 
 jerk of the wrists downwards and towards each other, and 
 then proceed to untie the Nut in the following way. 
 
 No. 1 stands still and raises his right arm. No. 2, followed 
 by Nos. 3, 4 and 5, then turns outward to his right and, 
 passing under No. I's sword, moves round in a circle, counter- 
 clockwise, until he meets No. 1, when all stand still, make a 
 quarter turn to the right and face centre, thus : — 
 
EABSDON SWOED DANCE. 91 
 
 This movement, it will be noticed, differs from that 
 described in the Swalwell dance. The latter is, of course, the 
 more logical way because, in principle, it accords with the 
 method in which the Nut was tied. The Earsdon men told 
 me that_ they acquired their present habit some years ago 
 when they had a leader who was an old man and it was 
 necessary to do all that they could to spare him trouble. It 
 is curious that, this being their object, they did not lighten 
 his labour still further by tying the Nut on the same principle, 
 thus : — 
 
 This brings the first Nut to a conclusion. The construction 
 of the rest of the dance is the same as that of the Swalwell 
 dance, and consists of a series of Nuts, each of which begins 
 and ends, respectively, with the two figures above described, 
 and contains, interposed between them, a new and additional 
 figure. The order in which these special figures are presented 
 is not prescribed, but is determined by the leader, who calls 
 out the name of the next figure during the performance of 
 Single-guard. As in the Swalwell dance, whenever the Nut 
 is tied in any other than the normal way, this will be 
 specifically mentioned and described at the end of each figure 
 in which it occurs. 
 
 The distinctive jfigures will now be described in their 
 proper order. 
 
 Figure 3.^Three-and-Two. 
 This is the same figure as the Needle {see p. 77). 
 
92 THE 8H0BT-8W0RD DANCE. 
 
 FiGUBE 4. — Turn-In. 
 
 This is a variant of Single-Guard. 
 
 Raising both arms, the dancers make a three-quarter turn, 
 clockwise, and then proceed to move round in a circle in the 
 same direction, one behind the other. 
 
 No. 1 then raises both arms, moves a step outside the ring, 
 revolves twice on his axis counter-clockwise, and then dances 
 round and outside the circle counter-clockwise until he comes 
 to his place, when he turns in, as in Single-Guard. 
 
 This evolution is then executed, successively, by Nos. 2, 3, 
 4 and 5. Immediately No. 5 has resumed his place. No. 1 
 turns outward and the Nut is tied in the usual manner. 
 
 Figure 5. — Follow- We. 
 
 No. 1 raises his left arm and, followed by Nos. 2, 3 and 4, 
 moves round in a circle counter-clockwise ; while No. 5, 
 raising his right arm, turns out to his right and goes round 
 in a circle, clockwise, by himself. 
 
 At the end of the first circuit. No. 2 leaves the right-hand 
 circle and follows behind No. 5. 
 
 At the end of the second and third circuits, Nos. 3 and 4, 
 ■respectively, join No. 5's circle. 
 
 This evolution is now executed in the reverse way, Nos. 2, 
 3 and 4, successively leaving the left for the right-hand 
 circle. 
 
 The figure may be repeated as • often as the leader wishes. 
 The Nut, however, can only be tied when No. 2 is entering 
 the right-hand circle. 
 
 Figure 6. — Changv. 
 
 This is a variant of Three-and-Two. 
 
 No. 1 raises his left arm, turns outward to his left 
 and, followed by Nos. 2 and 8, moves round in a circle 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 93 
 
 counter-clockwise. Simultaneously, No. 6 raises his right 
 arm, turns outward to his right and, followed by No. 4, goes 
 round in a circle clockwise. 
 
 At the end of every circuit, Nos. 1 and 5 change places, 
 No. 5 always passing- i»/rowt of No. 1. 
 
 The Nut can be tied in the usual way whenever No. 1 is 
 entering the right-hand circle. No. 5, however, must be 
 careful to face centre by turning counter-clockwise. 
 
 FiGUBE 7. — Tumble. 
 
 K 
 
 No. 5 raises his left arm, turns outward, moves round to 
 his left outside Np. 1 and stands between Nos. 1 and 2, 
 resting his back upon No. I's sword. He then turns a back 
 somersault over No. I's rapper and returns backwards to his 
 place. 
 
 Baising his right arm, he then moves round to his right, 
 outside No. 4, and stands between Nos. 4 and 3, where he 
 repeats the same performance. 
 
 Making a quarter turn clockwise and moving a step to his 
 right, he now stands between Nos. 2 and 3, places his feet 
 together and jumps over No. 2's sword, Nos. 2 and 3 lowering 
 the sword under his feet as he does so. 
 
94 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 He then rests his back upon No. 2's sword, turns a back 
 somersault over it and returns to his place. 
 The Nut is then tied in the usual way. 
 
 Figure 8. — Figure Eight. 
 This is the same figure as Eight- And-Left {see p. 79j ■ 
 
 Figure 9. — Rapfally. 
 -<•••.. 
 
 ^o. t moves forward, passes under No. I's sword, turns to 
 his left and dances round and outside the circle counter- 
 clockwise, passing outside Nos. 2 and 3. Simultaneously, 
 No. 5 raises his right arm, makes a three-quarter revolution 
 ou his own axis clockwise, moves a step or two forward, and 
 meets No. 4 face to face. No. 5 now makes a complete 
 revolution on his axis counter-clockwise, and then, followed 
 by No. 4, proceeds to move round in a circle counter- 
 clockwise. When No. 5 has completed three quarters of his 
 first circuit and is facing the audience, No. 1, raising his 
 right arm, turns outward to his right and, followed by Nos. 2 
 and 3, moves round in a circle clockwise. 
 
 The Nut can only be tied when Nos. 1 and 5 are just 
 entering upon a new circuit. Nos. 1, 5 and 4 then stand 
 still ; vfhile Nos. 2 and 3 move round counter-clockwise. 
 
MABSDON SWOBV DANCE. 
 
 95 
 
 outside Nos. 1, 5 and 4, pass under No. 4's sword^ make each 
 a half turn counter-clockwise and face centre. 
 
 Nos. 1 and 5 then move forwards and face centre, each 
 making a half turn, No. 1 clockwise, and No. 5 counter- 
 clockwise. 
 
 This, it will be found, ties the Nut, 
 
 FiGUEB 10. — The Prince op Wales. 
 
 • • 
 
 ■•>- ••-.. 
 
 3 "V 
 
 
 v-i-; 
 
 Nos. 2 and 4 close up and ,stand beside No. 3 in the position 
 shown in the diagram. No. 1 then raises bis left arm, turns 
 outward to his left, passes round and outside them, counter- 
 clockwise, and returns to his place ; while No. 5 raises his 
 right arm, turns outward to his right, passes round and 
 
96 
 
 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 outside the three stationary dancers, clockwise, and resumes 
 his place. No. 1 passes outside No. 5 on first meeting him, 
 and inside when he meets him the second time. 
 
 Nos. 1 and 5 now stand close beside No. 3, while Nos. 2 
 and 4 move round and outside them —No. 2 counter-clockwise, 
 and No. 4 clockwise. No. 2 passes No. 4 first on the outside 
 and then on the inside. No. 3 remains stationary throughout 
 the figure. 
 
 The Nut is tied in the usual way directly Nos. 2 and 4 
 have resumed their places. 
 
 Figure 11. — Doctor Cook. 
 ■<■ 
 
 V^ 4 
 
 No. 1 leaps over No. 5's sword, raises both arms, revolves 
 once on his axis counter-clockwise, and then, turning to his 
 left, moves outside and round the circle counter-clockwise 
 and returns to his place. Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 then do 
 likewise, each in turn jumping over the rapper belonging to 
 the dancer on his left and performing the evolutions above 
 described. 
 
 The Nut is tied in the usual way directly No. 5 has 
 resumed his place. 
 
EARSDON SWOKD-DANCERS. 
 The Leader holding up the Nut. 
 
 EARSDON SWORD-DANCE. 
 FIXr (se p. 97;. 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 97 
 
 
 ^"5 
 
 Figure 12. — Fixy. 
 
 V 
 
 
 KTX 
 
 «^« 
 
 r' y 
 
 ^ 
 
 giving 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 t 
 
 All move round clockwise until No. 3 faces audience. 
 
 No. 1, raising his left arm, then turns outward to his left, 
 passes outside No. 2, moves forward between Nos. 2 and 3 
 (under No. 2's sword), makes a half turn clockwise and 
 stands with his back to the audience on No. 3's left 
 front. 
 
 Simultaneously, No. 5, keeping his face to the centre, 
 passes behind No. 4, advances between Nos. 3 and 4 (under 
 No. 3's sword), and, making a half turn couliter-clockwise, 
 stands with his back to the audience on No. 3's right 
 front. 
 
 No. 2 now makes a one and a quarter turn counter- 
 clockwise, moves backward and stands behind No. 8, facing 
 No. 1 ; while No. 4 makes a one and a quarter turn clock- 
 wise, backs behind No. 3 and faces No. 5 {see plate facing 
 p. 97). 
 
 The dancers, standing in this position, "step" (eight 
 bars). 
 
 The Nut is then tied in the following way. No. 3 moves 
 forward, passes under No. 5's sword, turns to his left and 
 dances round and outside Nos. 1 and 2, halts between Nos. 2 
 and 4 and faces centre. 
 
9S 
 
 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 4r 
 
 t 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 t 
 
 No. 1 then raises his left arm, turns outward and ties the 
 Nut in the usual manner. 
 
 Figure 13. — The Old Fiddlee. 
 
 All move round clockwise until No. 3 is facing the audience. 
 The rest also face audience, Nos. 1, 2 and 5 turning counter- 
 clockwise and No. 4 clockwise, and stand thus : — 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 >^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 In this position they step until the end of the strain of the 
 music (eight hars). 
 
 No. 5 now turns outwards to his right and moves into 
 No. 3's position ; No. 1 turns outwards to his left and takes 
 No. 2's place ; Nos. 4 and 2 move forwards to the front rank ; 
 and No. 3 takes No. 4's position, thus : — 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 99 
 
 •' 4.?- ' ^••2% giving ^ ^ 
 
 ^ T I J 
 
 Standing in this position all " step " until the end of the 
 strain (eight bars). Whereupon, a similar change of position 
 is again made, thus : — 
 
 .^- ••^ ^ 
 
 In this position they all " step " as before. 
 
 The next change is made a little differently. The front 
 right (No. 1) now goes to the back and No. 3 moves one place 
 back ; while the rest move as before, thus : — 
 
 
 A* 
 
 • • 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 \ \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 .••5-. 
 
 
 giving 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 4- 
 
 ^•' 
 
 v^ 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Sword Dances- 
 
 -Novello. H 
 
 
 
 
 
100 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 After " stepping " as before, No. 2 moves into the back place ; 
 No. 5 takes No. 3's place, and No. 1 takes No. 4's ; while 
 Nos. 4 and 3 move forwards to the front line, thus : — 
 
 .'*^^ ""Jf4 ': giving ^ ^ 
 
 * • ' t 
 
 • • • .• 
 
 After " stepping " as before, the next and last change is 
 effected in the following way. No. 3 moves to the back 
 place ; No. 2 takes No. I's place ; Nos. 5 and 1 move into the 
 two- front places ; while No. 4 turns outward to his left, 
 passes between the second rank and the hindmost, and takes 
 No. 5's place, thus : — 
 
 .....^ •'.•, 
 
 I 5» ^'1* \ giving ^ ^ 
 
 \ ! : / 
 
 The dancers, once again in their original places, now " step " 
 until the end of the strain (eight bars). 
 
 Immediately the " stepping " is finished. No. 5 makes a 
 three-quarter turn clockwise, after which the Nut can be 
 tied in the usual way. 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 101 
 
 Figure 14. — Dootoe Pakey. 
 
 No. 1 jumps over No. 3's sword (Nos. 8 and 4 lowering the 
 sword as he does so, after the manner of a skipping-rope), 
 turns left, and returns to his place. Nos. 2, 3, 4 and S then 
 do the same, each, in turn, jumping over the sword belonging 
 to the second dancer on his right and returning, counter- 
 clockwise, to his place. 
 
 The Nut is then tied in the usual way. 
 
 FiGUEE 15. — Waves. 
 This is the same as Changy, except that No. 1 always 
 crosses over from one circle to the other before, instead of 
 behind No. 5. 
 
 FiGUEE 16. DOUBLE-GUAED, 
 
 This is a variant of The Prince of Wales, in which the two 
 couples pass round simultaneously instead of in succession. 
 Nos. 1 and 2 move rotmd counter-clockwise, and Nos. 4 
 and 5 clockwise. Upon meeting, Nos. 1 and 2 pass outside 
 the first time, and inside the second time. 
 
 The Nut is then tied in the usual way. 
 
 Figure 17.— Faoe-Up. 
 Nos. 1 and 2 move forward, pass between Nos. 3 and 4 
 (under No. 3's sword), make each a half turn counter- 
 clockwise, and stand beside No. 3 (No. 2 on No. I's left) 
 facing audience. No. 5 moves a step backward into line with 
 the others, thus : — 
 
 ^4^e^ 
 
102 THE SHOBT-SWOBD DANCE. 
 
 Nos. 1 and 2 now walk forward under No. 8's sword and 
 No. 1 raises both arms, turns to his left, followed by Nos. 2, 
 3 and 4 and ties the Nut in the ordinary way. 
 
 The dancers then form into line and " step," the leader, 
 in the middle, holding up the Nut in his right hand well 
 above his head (8 bars). 
 
 This concludes the dance. 
 
 NOTATION, 
 
 Movements. 
 
 Introduction {see p. 84). 
 Fig. 1. Single-Guard {see p. 90). 
 Fig. 2. The Nut {see p. 90). 
 Fig. 1. Single-Guard {see p. 90). 
 Fig. 3. Three-and-Two {see p. 91). 
 , Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 4, Turn-In {see p. 92). 
 Figs. 2 and 1, The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 5. Follow- We {see p. 92). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 6. Changy {see p. 92). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 7. Tumble {see p. 93). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 8. Figure Eight {see p. 94). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 9. Katfally {see p. 94). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Pig. 10. The Prince of Wales {see p. 95). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 11. Doctor Cook {see p. 96). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Fig. 12. Fixy {see p. 97). 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 Pig. 13. The Old Fiddler {see p. 98). 
 
EABSDON SWOBD DANCE. 103 
 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single- Guard. 
 
 Pig. 14. Doctor Parry {see p. 101). 
 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 
 Fig. 15. Waves (see p. 101). 
 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 
 Fig. 16. Double-Guard {see p. 101). 
 
 Figs. 2 and 1. The Nut and Single-Guard. 
 
 Fig. 17. Face-Up {see p. 101). 
 
 Fig. 2. The Nut. 
 
 Form up in line and exhibit Nut {see p. 102). 
 

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 B 
 
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 ^^ ^m 
 
 M^ 
 
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 M^H 
 
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CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE 
 ABBOTS BROMLEY HORN.DANCE. 
 
 There are ten performers, six dancers, a fool. Maid 
 Marian, a hobby-horse, and a boy carrying a bow and arroW.^ 
 These are accompanied by a musician, who plays an accordion, 
 and a boy with a triangle. 
 
 Each dancei; carries, a pair of reindeer horns of great size, 
 spuie of which . weigh between 80 and 90 pounds apiece. 
 The antlers borne by the first three dancers' are painted a 
 white or' cream colour, the remaining . three a , dark blue. 
 The horns are set in a wooden . counterfeit skull, from which 
 depends a short wooden pole or handle about eighteen inches 
 long. Each dancer bears the head in front of him, and 
 supports it by grasping the handle with his right hand and 
 balancing the horns with his left. 
 
 : The fool has a stick with a bladder attached tp it ; Maid 
 Marian who, as usual, is impersonated by a man dressed in 
 woman's clothes, carries a wooden ladlp which is used to 
 collect money ; alnd the: boy hojds a bow and arrow which he 
 chcks together in time ■vyith-the music. The form of the 
 hobby-horse is shown in the accompanying ■ photograph. 
 The head is made of wood, painted, and furnished with a 
 hairy mane. The lower jaw is attached to the upper by 
 a hinge which is worked bv a string so that the rider' can 
 snap the jaws togethfer in time with the music. 
 
 The actual dresses now worn by the performers (see 
 photograph) are copies, more or less exact, of some . that 
 were devised by a local resident about, twenty-five; or thirty 
 years ago. As, therefore, there is no traditional authority 
 for them, there is no need to describe them in detail. 
 
 THE MUSIC. 
 
 There is no special or traditional tune for the dance. The 
 
 musician told me that any country-dance air would serve, 
 
 provided that it was played in the proper time (in^Comttion 
 
 Time cj = 108). When I saw the dance performed two tunes 
 
106 ABBOTS BROMLEY HOBN-DANCE. 
 
 only were played, "Yankee Doodle" and the following simple 
 little melody : — 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 ^— «— s>- 
 
 1= 
 
 ^=^F=T^^-=rr=r=f^=r=^ 3^^^ 
 
 S^ 
 
 In a letter written in 1893 by the vicar of the parish (see 
 "Folk-Lore Journal," vol. iv., p. 172), it is stated that a 
 special tune used to be played for the horn dance by a man 
 with a fiddle, and within the memory of some then living, 
 but that all efforts to recover it had failed. 
 
 THE STEP. 
 The step is very similar to the normal country-dance step. 
 It is an easy, rhythmical, graceful and springy walking 
 movement, executed entirely on the ball of the foot, and 
 in a jaunty manner which is highly characteristic and 
 extremely engaging. The performers hold themselves erect, 
 heads up and backs straight, bear themselves with dignity 
 and preserve a grave demeanour. The steps fall on the 
 first and middle beats of the bar throughout the dance, 
 with one trifling exception presently to be explained. 
 
 The dance is performed annually on the Monday in the 
 Wakes week, that is on the day following the first Sunday after 
 the fourth of September. The horns and other properties are 
 in the custody of the Vicar and are kept in the church tower. 
 
 There is a tradition that at one time the dance used to be 
 performed on certain Sunday mornings in front of the 
 church porch, and a collection made for the poor. The 
 earliest account of the dance is, probably, that given by 
 Dr. Plot in his " Natural History of Staffordshire " (1686). 
 As this is of great interest it will bear quotation in full : — 
 
 " At Abbots, or now rather Pagets Bromley, they had also, 
 within memory, a sort of sport, which they celebrated at 
 
ABBOTS BBOMLEY HOBN-DANCE. 107 
 
 Christmas (on New-year and Twelft-day) call'd the Hobby- 
 horse dance, from a person that carryed the image of a horse 
 between his legs, made of thin boards, and in his hand a bow 
 and arrow, which passing through a hole in the bow, and 
 stopping upon a sholder it had in it, he made a snapping 
 noise as he drew it to and fro, keeping time with the Music : 
 with this man danced six others, carrying on their shoulders 
 as many Bain deers heads, 3 of them painted white, and 
 3 red, with the Armes of the cheif families (viz. of Paget, 
 Bagot, and Wells) to whom the revenews of the Town cheifly 
 belonged, depicted on the palms of them, with which they 
 danced the Hays, and other Country dances. To this Hobby- 
 horse dance there also belong'd a pot, which was kept by 
 tumes, by 4 or 5 of the cheif of the Town, whom they call'd 
 Beeves, who provided Cakes and Ale to put in this pot ; 
 all people who had any kindness for the good intent of the 
 Institution of the sport, giving pence a piece for themselves 
 and families; and so forraigners too, that came to see it: 
 with which Mony (the charge of the Cakes and Ale being 
 defrayed) they not only repaired their Church but kept their 
 poore too : which charges are not now perhaps so cheerfully 
 boarn." 
 
 Interesting as this account is, the words " within memory," 
 implying that Dr. Plot wrote from his own or others' recollec- 
 tions, and these of no very recent date, render inference as to 
 subsequent changes in the custom, based on omissions and 
 di£ferenees of detail in his description, somewhat precarious. 
 
 On the one hand, however, it will be noticed that the dance 
 was performed at Christmas time ; that the bow was carried 
 by the rider of the hobby-horse ; that the horns were borne 
 on the shoulders instead of in the hands of the dancers ; and 
 that no mention is made either of a fool or of Maid Marian. 
 
 On the other hand we find that the bearer of the bow and 
 arrow still makes the snapping noise " keeping time with the 
 Music " ; that the number of the dancers is the same ; and 
 that the dance itself has changed very little. For the Hays 
 
- DaDcers carrying horns. 
 
 108 ABBOTS BBOMLEY HORN-DANCE. 
 
 evidently refers to the serpentine movement which is the 
 chief and the most characteristic feature . of the modern 
 dance; while the second evolution, " All-Together," is, of 
 course, a well known country-dance figure. It is greatly to be 
 regretted that Dr. Plot made no reference to the music nor to 
 the costumes worn by the dancers. 
 
 Other accounts of the dance will be found in P. H. 
 Ditchfield's " Old English Customs," p. 139, and in 
 " The Folk-Lore Journal," vol. iv., p. 172, and vol. vii., 
 p. 382. ^ ' ' 
 
 THE DANCE. 
 The performers stand in single file, one behind the other, 
 headed by the leader, and in the following order : — 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4. 
 
 5. 
 
 6., 
 
 7. Maid Marian. 
 
 8. Hobby-Jiorse. 
 
 9. Boy with bow and arrow. 
 10. The Fool. 
 
 Led by No. 1, they first move forward a few yards in a 
 straight line and then describe a circular or elliptic track in 
 either direction, say, clockwise. If space permits, the circle 
 should be large enough 'to allow of a clear space of at least 
 ten yards between the head and tail of the procession. 
 
 After 'completing one or more revolutions, the- leader 
 suddenly turns inwards, and faces No. 2. Poising himself 
 for a moment, while taking two or three short steps backward, 
 he then passes between Nos. 3 and 4, turns sharply to his 
 left, dances close to and outside the rest of the dancers,, and 
 -initiates a new circular movement in the reverse direction, 
 counter-clockwise. 
 
 Injmediately No. 1 faces No. 2, No. 4, followed .by those 
 behind him, moves inwards to his right along the track 
 
ABBOTS. BBOMLEY HOBN-DANCE. 
 
 109 
 
 shown in the diagram, shaping his course and regulating his 
 pace so that he falls in naturally behind No. 3 : — 
 
 8. 
 
 Y., 
 
 "9 <.....10 ■' 
 
 The dotted line in the above diagram shows the original 
 track. A is the point where the leader doubles back and 
 faces No. 2 ; and A P Q R the course along which he then 
 proceeds, followed, as far as P, by Nos. 2 and 3 and, 
 subsequently, by the rest of the procession. 
 
 No. 4, with those behind him, moves along the line 
 S T P Q E joining No. I's track at P at the moment when 
 No. 3 has just passed by. The success of the evolution very 
 largely depends upon the skill with which No. 4 shapes his 
 course and orders his pace. 
 
 These circular and serpentine movements are repeated, in 
 alternation, as often as the leader elects. He then calls 
 " All- Together," turns sharply to his left (i.e., if he is going 
 round clockwise ; otherwise, to his right) and, followed by 
 Nos. 2 and 3, proceeds in a straight line across the circle, as 
 
110 
 
 ABBOTS BBOMLET HOBN-DANCM. 
 
 shown in the diagram. Simultaneously, Nos. 4, 6, 6, 7 and 8 
 edge towards the left until they are in a straight line parallel 
 to and about five yards away from the path described by the 
 leader. When the latter is opposite to No. 6, all, except 
 Nos. 9 and 10, halt and make a quarter turn inwards, so that 
 Nos. 1, 2 and 3 face one way and Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the 
 opposite direction. 
 
 Immediately No. 1 initiates this movement, Nos. 10 and 9 
 make a half turn to their left and, bearing to the right, dance 
 towards and meet No. 1 ; whereupon they both turn inwards 
 and face, respectively, Nos. 7 and 8. 
 
 The dancers are now in two parallel lines facing each other, 
 as shown in the following diagram : — 
 
 10 >-•->•■♦ ••<■ 
 
 1/ 
 
 9' 
 
 \ VIII VII VI 
 
 \, * • ^ 
 
 V A. •.. A- ^ 
 
 ■■■*■.:■<:■-■•■ ■■<-l 
 
 \ 2 
 V IV X/ 
 
 giving 
 
 9 10 1 
 V V V 
 
 AAA 
 
 .8 7 e 
 
 2 3 
 V V 
 
 A A 
 5 4 
 
ABBOTS BBOMLEY HOBN-DANCE. Ill 
 
 Standing in this position the two hnes of dancers wait 
 until the beginning of the next strain of the niiisic. They 
 then move forward and meet ; each dancer beginning with 
 his left foot, taking three steps forward and then, instead of 
 a fourth step, throwing his right leg forward, while he swings 
 both hands forward and upward (two bars). 
 
 They then take four steps backward to their places,, 
 beginning with right feet (two bars). 
 
 These forward and backward movements are then repeated 
 twice (eight bars). 
 
 The two lines of dancers now cross over and change sides, 
 partners passing left shoulder to left shoulder, turning 
 inwards and facing each other (four bars). 
 
 All the above movements are then repeated in the reverse 
 direction ; and this brings the dancers back to their original 
 positions (sixteen bars, i.e., thirty-two bars in aU). 
 
 This concludes the figure, which is repeated or not at the 
 leader's discretion. On its conclusion the dancers form up in 
 single file and begin the dance over again. 
 
 To form line the leader faces outward, turns sharply to his 
 right, followed by Nos. 2 and 3 ; No. 4, followed by Nos. 5, 6 
 7 and 8, falls in behind No. 3; while No. 9, with No. 10 
 behind him, follows No. 8. 
 
 A 
 
 
 9 ^ lo •. ^ ^. 
 
 8 7 6 5 4 
 
 The above movements are executed whenever the dancers 
 perform in a stationary position before a special audience. 
 When, however, they are proceeding from one "stand" to 
 
112 ABBOTS BBOMLEY HOBN-DANCE. 
 
 another they dance in the way shown in the following 
 diagram : — 
 
 
 The unbroken line shows the track taken by Nos. 1, 2, 
 and 3 ; whenever No. 4, with those behind him, follows a 
 different course the latter is indicated by a dotted line.