At St. Mary Bourne Christmas is accompanied by ‘Mince-Pie,’ and in both the Dorset versions, instead of calling for ‘room,’ he introduces ‘Room’ as an actual personage. Similarly, at Newport and Eccleshall, the prologue speaker receives the curious soubriquet of ‘Open-the-Door.’ After the prologue, the fighters are introduced. They stand in a clump outside the circle, and in turns step forward and strut round it[762]. Each is announced, by himself or by his predecessor or by the presenter, with a set of rhymes closely parallel to those used in the sword-dances. With the fighters generally comes the ‘King of Egypt’ (occasionally corrupted into the ‘King of England’), and the description of St. George often contains an allusion to his fight with the dragon and the rescue of Sabra, the King of Egypt’s daughter. In one or two of the northern versions (Newcastle, Whitehaven) the King of Egypt is a fighter; generally he stands by. In one of the Dorset versions (A) he is called ‘Anthony.’ Sabra appears only in Cornwall, and keeps silence. The Dragon fights with St. George in Cornwall, and also, as we have seen, in the curious Brill _mêlée_. The performance, naturally, ends with a _quête_. This takes various forms. Sometimes the presenter, or the whole body of actors, comes forward, and wishes prosperity to the household. Beelzebub, with his frying-pan or ladle, goes round to gather in the contributions. In the version preserved in _Sharpe’s London Magazine_, this is the function of a special personage, ‘Boxholder.’ In a considerable number of cases, however, the _quête_ is preceded by a singular action on the part of Little Devil Dout. He enters with his broom, and threatens to sweep the whole party out, or ‘into their graves,’ if money is not given. In Shropshire and Staffordshire he sweeps up the hearth, and the custom is probably connected with the superstition that it is unlucky to remove fire or ashes from the house on Christmas Day. ‘Dout’ appears to be a corruption of ‘Do out[763].’