I must not here omit that the firſt Courſe at a Manks Feaſt is always Broth, which is ſerved up, not in a Soop-Diſh, but in wooden Piggins, every Man his Meſs. This they do not eat with Spoons, but with Shells, which they call Sligs, very like our Muſſel Shells, but much larger.
CHRISTMAS is uſhered in with a Form much leſs meaning, and infinitely more fatiguing. On the 24th of December, towards Evening, all the Servants in general have a Holiday, they go not to Bed all Night, but ramble about till the Bells ring in all the Churches, which is at twelve a-Clock; Prayers being over, they go to hunt the Wren, and after having found one of theſe poor Birds, they kill her, and lay her on a Bier with the utmoſt Solemnity, bringing her to the Pariſh-Church, and burying her with a whimſical kind of Solemnity, ſinging Dirges over her in the Manks Language, which they call her Knell; after which Chriſtmas begins. There is not a Barn unoccupied the whole twelve Days, every Pariſh hiring Fidlers at the publick Charge; and all
