OIEL VERREE
On this occasion, as on all similar occasions for the last thirty years,
Tommy-Bill-beg, the harbor-master, and Jemmy Quark Balladhoo had been
each to contribute toward the curious Manx ritual of carol or carval
singing. Great had hitherto been the rivalry between these musical
celebrities. But word had gone around the town that to-night their
efforts were to be combined in a carol which they were to sing together.
A young wag had effected this extraordinary combination by a plot which
was expected to add largely to the amusement of the listeners.
Tommy-Bill-beg, as was well known, could not read a syllable, yet he
would never sing his carol without having the printed copy of it in his
hand. Such curious vanity had long been a cause of merriment, and now
some capital was to be made out it. Jemmy Quark Balladhoo, on the other
hand, could read, but he resembled Tommy-Bill-beg in being almost
stone-deaf. Each could hear himself sing, but neither could hear
another.
And now for the plot. Young Mr. Wag had called on the harbor-master that
morning at his ivy cottage, and, "Tommy," said he, "it's mortal strange
the way a man of your common-sense can't see that you'd wallop that
squeaking ould Jemmy Balladhoo in a jiffy if you'd only consent to sing
a ballad along with him. Bless me, it's then they'd be seeing what a
weak, ould, cracked pot of a voice is at him."
Tommy-Bill-beg's face began to wear a smile of benevolent condescension.
Observing his advantage, the young rascal continued, "Do it at the Oiel
Verree to-night, Tommy. He'll sing his treble, and you'll sing seconds
to him."
It was an unlucky remark. The harbor-master frowned with the austerity
of a Malvolio. "_Me_ sing _seconds_ to the craythur? No; never!"
It was explained to Tommy-Bill-beg, with a world of abject apology, that
there was a sense in which seconds meant firsts. The harbor-master was
mollified, and at length consented to the proposal; but with one idea
clearly impressed upon his mind, namely, that if he was to sing a carol
with Jemmy Balladhoo, he must take good care to sing his loudest, in
order to drown at once the voice of his rival, and the bare notion that
it was _he_ who was singing seconds to such a poor creature as that.
Then Mr. Wag walked up the hill to Balladhoo, and, "Jemmy," said he,
"it's mortal strange the way a man of your common-sense can't see that
you'd wallop that squeaking ould Tommy-Bill-beg in a jiffy if you'd only
consent to sing a ballad along with him. Do it at the Oiel Verree
to-night, Jemmy, and bless me! that's the time when they'll be seeing
what a weak, ould, cracked pot of a voice is at the craythur."
The gardener of Balladhoo fell an easier prey to the plot than the
harbor-master, and a carol was selected. It was to be the ancient carol
on the bad women mentioned in the Bible as having (from Eve downward)
brought evil on mankind. This was accounted an appropriate ditty for
these notable illustrations of bachelordom.
Now, Tommy-Bill-beg always kept his carols where Danny saw them--pinned
against the walls of his cottage. The "Bad Women" was the carol which
was pinned above the mantelpiece. It resembled all the others in being
worn, crumpled, and dirty; but Tommy knew it by its locality, and could
distinguish every other by its position.
Young Mr. Wag had somehow got what he called a "skute" into this
literary mystery; so, after arranging with Jemmy Quark, he watched
Tommy-Bill-beg out of his house, crept into it unobserved took down the
carol pinned above the mantelpiece, and fixed up another in place of it
from a different part of the room. The substituted carol happened, oddly
enough, to be a second copy of the Same carol on "Bad Women," with this
radical difference: that the one taken down was the version of the carol
in English, and the one put up was the version in Manx.
The bells began to ring, and Tommy-Bill-beg donned his best petticoat
and monkey-jacket, put the carol in his pocket, and went off to church.
Prayers had been said that night to a thin congregation, but no sooner
were they done, and the parson had prepared to leave, than great crowds
of young men and maidens trooped down the aisles. The young women went
up into the gallery, and from that elevation shot down at their bachelor
friends large handfuls of peas; but to what ancient spirit of usage,
beyond the ancient spirit of mischief, the strange practise was due
must be left as a solemn problem to the learned and curious antiquaries.
Nearly everybody carried a candle, the candles of the young women being
usually adorned with a red ribbon and rosette. The brilliance of
illumination was such as the dusky old church enjoyed only once in a
year.
When everything was understood to be ready, and the parish clerk had
taken his station inside the communion-rail, the business of the Oiel
Verree began. First one man got up and sang a carol in English; then
another sang a Manx carol. The latter depicted the physical sufferings
of Christ, and described, with an intensity of "naturalism" even yet
unknown to modern literature, how the "skin was torn off his
shoulder-blade." But the great event of the night was to be the carol
sung by the sworn enemies, Tommy-Bill-beg and Jemmy Quark Balladhoo.
At last their time came. They rose from opposite sides of the church,
eyed each other with severe looks, stepped out of their pews, and walked
down the aisle to the door of the porch. Then they turned about in
silence, and, standing side by side, faced the communion.
The whispering in the gallery and tittering in the body were audible to
all except the persons who were the occasion of them.
"Hush, hush, ma veen, that's him, that's him." "Bless me, look at
Tommy-Bill-beg and the petticoat, and the handkercher pinnin' round his
throat!" "Aw, dear, it's what he's used of." "A reg'lar Punch-and-Judy."
"Hush, man, let them make a start for all."
The carol they were about to sing contained some thirty verses. It was
an ancient usage that after each verse the carol-singers should take a
long stride together toward the communion. By the time the carol came to
an end they must therefore be at the opposite end of the church. What
this meant must also be left to the venerable doctors aforesaid.
There was now a sublime scorn printed on the features of Jemmy Quark. As
for Tommy-Bill-beg, he looked at this last moment like a man who was
rather sorry than otherwise for his rash adversary. "The rermantick
they're looking," whispered one expectant maiden in the gallery to a
giggling companion beside her.
Expectation was at its highest when Tommy-Bill-beg thrust his hand into
the pocket of his monkey-jacket and brought out the printed copy of the
carol. Tommy unfolded it, glanced at it with the air of a conductor
taking a final look at his score, nodded his head at it as if in
approval, and then, with a magnanimous gesture, held it between himself
and Jemmy Quark. Jemmy in turn glanced at it, glanced again, glanced a
third time at the paper, and then up into the face of Tommy-Bill-beg.
Anxiety was now on tiptoe. "Hush, d'ye hear, hush, or it's spoiling all
you'll be, for sure."
At the moment when Jemmy Quark glanced into the face of Tommy-Bill-beg
there was a smile on that benign countenance. Jemmy mistook that smile.
He imagined he saw a trick. Jemmy could read, and he perceived that the
carol which the harbor-master held out to him was not the carol he had
been told to prepare for. They were, by arrangement, to have sung the
English version of "Bad Women." This was the Manx version, and it was
always sung to a different metre. Ha! Jemmy understood it all! This
rascally Tommy-Bill-beg was trying to expose him. The monster wanted to
show that he, Jemmy Quark Balladhoo, could only sing one carol, but
Jemmy would be even with him. He _could_ sing this Manx version, and he
_would_. It was Jemmy's turn to smile.
"Aw, look at them--the pair of them--grinnin' together like the two ould
gurgoils on the steeple."
At a motion of the harbor-master's hand, intended to beat the time, the
singers began. Tommy-Bill-beg sang the carol agreed upon--the English
version of "Bad Women." Jemmy Quark sang the carol of which they held
the printed copy in their hands--the Manx version of "Bad Women."
Neither heard the other. Each bawled at the utmost reach of his
lung-power. To one tune Tommy-Bill-beg sang:
"Thus from the days of Adam
Her mischief you may trace,"
and to another tune Jemmy Quark sang:
"She ish va'n voir ain ooilley
Son v'ee da Adam ben,"
What laughter ensued! How the young women in the gallery lay back in
their seats with shrieks of hysteria! How the young fellows in the body
made the sacred edifice ring with guffaws! But the singers--Tommy
especially--with eyes steadfastly fixed on the paper, heard nothing but
each his own voice. Thus they sang on.
They had got through three verses, and made three strides toward the
communion, when suddenly there was heard above the uproar a dismal and
unearthly cry, and all at once the laughter and the shouting of the
people ceased. Every face turned to the porch.
Bareheaded, dripping wet from his matted hair to his feet, a ghastly
light in his sunken eyes, with wasted cheeks and panting breath, Danny
Fayle stood there, one hand on the door-jamb, the other holding a coil
of rope.
"The 'Ben-my-Chree' is on the rocks!" he cried, and was gone in an
instant.
If a spectre had appeared the consternation had scarcely been greater.
But the next moment, recovering from their surprise, the people on all
sides leaped up and rushed out of the church. In two minutes not a soul
was left except Tommy-Bill-beg and Jemmy Quark Balladhoo, who still sang
lustily, oblivious of the fact that they had no audience.