A challenge of wits lies at the center of the Welsh wassailing tradition. A band of characters including Punch and Judy and a Merryman musician travel door to door accompanying a fearsome folk figure – a horse’s skull with snapping jaws clad in a long white sheet. As long as the householders can rhyme clever answers to the improvised verses and riddles posed by the Grey Mare and her troupe of mummers, they do not have to open their doors. But once they are outwitted, the door is opened and refreshments have to be provided.