Now, the melody sung is most interesting, for it is undoubtedly pre-Reformation and is cast in the style of the Church music of the period, for there was no sharp dividing line between secular and sacred music when “souling” first began.[53] The “punctum” or drop of a fifth is very characteristic, and will be found in Merbecke and Church writers of the period. [52] _e.g._ Instead of “Soul, soul, for an apple or two,” I have heard them sing, “Sole, sole, sole of my shoe”! [53] I heard a comic song sung by a rustic in Sussex a few years ago to the plain-song which is used for the hymn “O come! O come! Emmanuel,” in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_. The following is the tune as taken down by me many times in the past thirty years, though it is now getting greatly corrupted and altered, and will probably soon die out. No accompaniment is used:-- [Music: Souling night has come at last, And we are souling here; And all that we are souling for, Is apples and good cheer. Soul, soul for an apple or two, If you’ve no apples, pears will do; If you’ve no pears, a good jug of beer Will last us all till this time next year. God bless the master of this house, God bless the mistress too; And all the little children that Around the table go. ] Other verses are:-- Likewise you men and maidens, Your cattle and your store, And all that dwells within your gates, We wish you ten times more. The lanes are very dirty, My shoes are very thin; I have a little pocket, To put a penny in. It will be noticed that the “refrain”[54] practically consists of only two notes, so that it could easily be lengthened at the will of the singer and new lines inserted. Here are some of the oldest rimes to which it is sung:-- Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake, Pray, good missis! a soul-cake, An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry, Or any good thing to make us merry-- One for Peter, two for Paul, And three for Him who made us all. Up with the kettle and down with the pan Give us { an answer } and we’ll be gone.[55] { our souling } [54] Mr. Fuller-Maitland gives this as the tune in _English County Songs_, p. 30. This is a mistake: he only has the “refrain.” [55] There is always an “up” and “down” in all the versions met with, but, as pointed out in _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, the original no doubt was:-- “Up with the ladder and down with the can,” _i.e._ the ladder is to be raised to the apple-loft and the can taken down in the cellar for ale or cider. The following Staffordshire version is valuable for the statement that they “have all been praying for the soul departed.”