APPLE RHYMES

Evening Star, Issue 20255, 16 August 1929, Page 3

APPLE RHYMES

In the West Country there still prevails an old custom of blessing, apple trees. A jug of cider is emptied at the root of an ancient tree; a timehonoured rhyme is repeated, and at its close a gun is fired. There were many forms of apple rhymes—some pious,, some superstitious, more nearly akin to magic and charms than to religion, and some merely expressions of hope and good wishes. Sometimes the orchard rite was observed at Christmas,, sometimes in the spring at blossom time, sometimes in the autumn just before harvest. There was also a luck rhyme recited on the plucking of the first apple, which was ceremoniously handed to a young girl, who halved and bit it. If a second apple were gathered before she had done so or before the recitation was completed misfortune was sure to follow. Thus the lines run Tho fruit of Evo receive and cleave And taste the flesh therein— A wholesome food, for man ;’tis good That once' for man was sin. . And since ’tis sweet, why, pluck and eat; The Lord will have it so, For that which Eve did-grieve believe Hath wrought its all of woe— Eat the apple. • Tho first mug of cider from the pi-ess was sometimes drunk to the health of the orchard, and its lees were cast upon the ground at the base of the finest or most ancient tree while this toast, handed down from no one knows how great antiquity, was repeated: — Here’s to thee, old Apple Tree! Be sure ye bud, be sure ye blow And bring’forth apples good enow— Hats full, caps full, Pockets full, mouths full, Hearts full and thankful— Hurrah, the Apple Tree! A brief and popular toast for the planting season was this for the setting of a single tree or the first of an orchard:— Here’s to tho Apple! Here’s to the Tree! . , Here’s to the lung, lads, and here s to we! To the Root— To the Fruit— And to he And to we— Huzzay for the King and the Farmer and the 'irce!