Note F — PART III.
Reading edition
It was probably the custom, on repeating these lines, to hold the snail to a candle, in order to make it quit the shell. In Normandy it was the practice, at Christmas, for boys to run round fruit-trees, with lighted torches, singing these lines:
Taupes et mulots, Sortez de vos clos, Sinon vous brulerai et la barbe et les os.