custom in good society for a boy to come into the hall after supper with
his face blackened, his forehead bound with white or yellow taffeta, and
bells tied to his legs. He then proceeded to dance the Morisco the length
of the hall, forth and back, to the great amusement of the company. So
says Tabourot, long dead; and to-day we learn that, in most winters, a
side of Morris-men dances at White Ladies Aston, one-and-a-half mile from
Spetchley, Worcester. They blacken their faces and have for music
accordion, triangle, and tambourine: their flute-player died recently.
Tabourot suggests that the bells might have been borrowed from the
_crotali_ of the ancients in the Pyrrhic dance. He then describes the
more modern Morris dance, which was performed by striking the ground with
the fore part of the feet; but as this proved fatiguing the work was
given to the heels, the toes being kept firm, whereby the bells jingled
more effectively. He adds that this method in turn was modified, as it
tended to bring on gouty complaints.

We are given by the same writer a notation of the Morisco, or Morisque,
music, steps, and description: this shows as nearly as possible the steps
of the Morris as we have seen it danced in England to-day.

Again, Engel, in a passage to us of extraordinary interest, gives in
modern notation "... one of the tunes headed La Morisque, probably the
oldest tune of the famous Morris dance still extant. As it is interesting
from having been printed in the year 1550, when most likely it was
already an old tune, it shall be inserted here ...." And there we found
the same tune which Tabourot gives for the dance that he described, as we
have already told. It is the tune of "Morris Off," which we reproduce in
our books of tunes. Just a few weeks earlier we had taken down, at
Redditch, from the fiddler of the Bidford Morris-men, the same tune,
note for note, as Tabourot gives it. Here in truth is a signal instance