The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-02-04
HUNTING THE WREN IN IRELAND
Some Legends Regarding the Bird.

1 are always acceptable, wrote A. CD
| Taylor of Newport, r. J.. in d late is
sue Of the Newport Herald
The summary you quoted seems t.
me inadequate, as an explanation o
the custom referred to, of killing tht
wrens on st. Stephens day, and carry.
Ing two or three of them about on (
! bush. The writer in Longman'S Mag
azine says as follows:
The most probable explanation is
! that the wren was sacred to the Druid
| and was used by them in diVinatioT
| and other pagan rites at the festival oi
! the winter solstiCe, which almost coin
| Cided with Christmas, and consequent
| ly the clergy urged their converts to
! destroy the birds which were associ-
ated with such unholy rites
AS | was born in the City of Cork
in the south of ireland, where the Gus
tom prevailed, am now past the three
score years and ten, and have always
been a student of Irish archaeology
and of birds, l venture TO think l may
add a few remarks on this subject,
founded on personal recollectiOns and
investigation.
The Druidical explanation does not
cover the whole ground, nor am |
aware of any proof that the Christian
Clergy of Ireland ever encouraged theil
converts to kill wrens.
Hunting the wren about Christmas
time is not yet extinct in either the
south or west of Ireland. So far back
as the year 1910 1 well recollect my
childish curiosity being aroused by
seeing a lot of boys parading coun-
try road. near the house where my
Iarents lived, and f1ourishing a bush
with one or two dead Wrens and one
or two other small birds tied thereto
with gay ribbons.
This was the day after Christmas.
They were singing some song, which
of course. I do not remember, but the
correct version of what the when
boys (as they were called used to
chant i'll those days, ran thus:
The wran, the wran, the king of all
birds,
st. Stephens day was cot in the furze;
Although he is little. his family's
CRATE.
SO we pray you, good ladies, to give US
a trate!
The boys, with this appeal, obtained
cakes and fruit and money, from the
well-to-do houses in the neighborhood.
II the boys were of larger size, local
history affirms that the following lines
were often added, and practically at
tended to:
Sing holly, sing ivy-sing ivy, sing
holly,
A drop just to drink, it would drown
melancholy;
And if you draw it or the best
We hope in Heaven your soul. will rest,
But. if you draw it or the small,
IL won't agree with the wran-boys at
all!
The best" and the small refer to
different bFeWs of ale.
How the wren became king of all
birds is briefly referred to in Mr.. and
Mrs. S. c. Halls Ireland, published III
1S41-43. 1t is to this effect
In a grand assembly of all the birds
Of the air. it was determined that the
sovereign of the feathered tribe
should be conferred upon the one who
would fly highest The favorite was,
naturally. the eagle-who scared up
wards. and when he he had vastly dis
-anced all competitors, he proclaimed
his monarchy in a loud note of tri-
who had hidden himself under the
Gathers of the eagles crest, popped
,ut from his hiding place, flew few
inches higher, and chirped out: Birds
III. look up and behold your king
The wrens kingship, however, is not
| purely Irish legend. Ii appears in the
egends of several other countries; and
must rot be confounded with his being
1 Il OBJ .,
Il Christmas time.
A more potent reason for his execu-
ion connects itself in very old
that in an approaching en-
with the Danes (hefore the
seat battle of Clontarf, in which the
rish reunited the Danes on the 23d
f April, 101D, when the native Irish
we're about to catch their Danish enc
nies asleep, a wren perched upon the
rum and woke the slumbering SEN
inels just in time TO save the whole
Danish army. In consequence of this,
he little bird was proclaimed traitor, /
and his life declared forfeit
whenever he was thereafter encoun- |
cred.
There is another tradition prevalent |
70 10 fifty years ago and still surviving |
a some parts Of the north and the |
outh of ireland, which may be an |
cho of the Danish one.
IL states that on one occasion James !
he Seconds forces were on the point |
f surprising King William the Thirds !
Imy early in the morning, when some !
yren's attracted by the fragments of |
he preceding nights meal, alighted on
he head OF adrum which had served |
on a table. The noise of their bills /
4 picking. awoke the drummers, who |
lstantly beat to arms and saved Will |
ans army from defeat. This may /
ave been about the years 16S9-1692.
1t is referred to in little book pub
shed in 1893 by DR.. w. H. Hammond,
The Rights of Animals"
here the cruelty of killing the tiny
irds is deprecated.
1t was this view of the custom which
lduced Mr.. Richard Dowden who was
mayor of Cork in the year 1S45, to in
ert in an official proclamation, an or
er forbidding the old popular cere-
lony long prevalent in Ireland, of
uniting and killing wren on St. /
tephen's day
Professor p. w. Joyse, NJ. r. /. A., of
'ublin, in the second volume of his ad-
iirable work on the origin and history
Irish Names" says that in olden
mes the wren was regarded as a
reat prophet; for by listening atten-
yely TO its chirping. those who were
killed in the language of birds, were r
nabled TO predict future events.
Hence, the writer of an old Life of
t. Meiing, translates dream, which is !
n Irish name for the bird by ''magis-
viun'' the druid Of BIRDS Implying
lat dream was derived from drui-en
lrui, or druid, Ell. of birds) and says