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Show Hunting the Wren In Old Ireland Once upon a time in Ireland, the wren was hunted and killed on Christmas morning: a branch of holly and bright ribbons were attached at-tached to his body which was carried car-ried from house to house by wren boys who sang songs and expected to receive a dole from-each household. house-hold. The story goes that during the Danish-Irish war, the Danes were resting after an arduous march and the Irish were creeping up quietly. All of a sudden a wren, spying a" few crumbs which the drowsy Danish Dan-ish drummer had dropped on the drumhead, swooped down and began be-gan to peck at the crumbs. The pecking awakened the boy, who aroused the camp: the Irish, driven off and defeated, blamed the wren. Modern Irish, ashamed of the once-honored tradition, say the guilty bird may have been a starling or a sparrow anyway, and now welcome wel-come the wren to their farms and homes. |