“Soul day, soul day, We be come a-souling; Pray, good people, remember the poor, And give us all a soul-cake. Soul day, soul day, soul, One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for Him who made us all. An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, Or any good thing to make us merry. Soul day, soul day, We have all been praying For the soul departed: So pray, good people, give us a cake, For we are all poor people, Well known to you before; So give us a cake, for charity’s sake, And our blessing we’ll leave at your door. Soul! soul! for an apple or two, If you have no apples, pears will do; If pears are scarce, then cakes from your pan, Give us our souling, and we’ll be gone.”[56] [56] _The Customs, Superstitions and Legends of the County of Stafford_, by C. H. Poole, p. 34. The following is a Lancashire reference:-- “There is a singular custom still kept up at Great Marton in the Fylde district on this day. In some places it is called ‘soul-caking,’ but there it is named ‘psalm-caking’--from their reciting psalms for which they receive cakes. The custom is changing its character also--for in place of collecting cakes from house to house, as in the old time, they now beg for money. The term ‘psalm’ is evidently a corruption of the old word ‘Sal,’ for soul; the mass or requiem for the dead was called ‘Sal-mass,’ as late as the reign of Henry VI.”[57] [57] _Lancashire Folk-Lore_, p. 251, by Harland and Wilkinson. As time went on this tune was probably considered dull and old-fashioned, and the following has, to a limited extent, supplanted it. It is evidently an adaptation of a “pace-egging” song (see _post_):-- [Music: We are one, two, three hearty lads, and we’re all of one mind, We have come here a-souling, good nature to find; We have come here a-souling as it doth appear, And it’s all that we are souling for is your ale and strong beer. ] _There are two other Verses._ At Northwich, Tarporley, and other places the soulers are accompanied by one bearing an imitation head of a horse, which snaps its jaws in an alarming manner. Thus “souling” has got grafted on to the pagan custom of “hodening.” At Over the soulers blacken their faces. This is a survival of the wearing of _black_ already mentioned. The “Soulers’ Song,” as given by Egerton Leigh, is a poor modern version, evidently adapted from a _Maying_ song:-- “Ye gentlemen of England I could have ye draw near To these few lines which we have wrote, And all ye soon shall hear Sweet melody of music all on this evening clear, For we are gone a-souling for apples and strong beer.” This is the fourth series of rimes on the subject, and the constant demand for apples and ale was to make a “wassail” bowl of “lambswool,” or hot spiced ale, with toast and roasted apples in it.