the Youth, nay, ſometimes People well advanced in Years making no ſcruple to be among theſe nocturnal Dancers. At this Time there never fails of ſome Work being made for Kirk Farmyns; ſo many young Fellows and Girls meeting in these Divertions, Nature too often prompts them to more cloſe Celebrations of the Feſtival, than thoſe the Barn allows; and many a Hedge has been Witneſs of Endearments, which Fear of Puniſhment has afterwards made both forſwear at the Holy Altar in Purgation. On Twelfth-Day the Fidler lays his Head in ſome one of the Wenches Laps, and a third Perſon aſks, who ſuch a Maid, or ſuch a Maid ſhall marry, naming the Girls then preſent one after another; to which he anſwers according to his own Whim, or agreeable to the Intimacies he has taken notice of during this Time of Merriment. But whatever he ſays is as abſolutely depended on as an Oracle; and if he happens to couple two People, who have an Averſion to each other, Tears and Vexation ſucceed the Mirth. This, they call, Cutting off the Fidler's Head; for, after this, he is dead for the whole Year.
