Miss Hope writes of Holy Gabriel that the game is played at Mead Vale, a small village in Surrey, but is unknown at larger villages and towns a few miles off. Some of the women who played it in their youth say that it began in the Primitive Methodist school at Mead Vale. It is played at Outword, also a remote village, and was introduced there by a stonemason, who stated that he had learned it from a cousin who had been in America. Further inquiry by Miss Hope elicited the fact that the cousin had learned the game, when a boy, in his native place in Lancashire. He did not know whether it was a well-known game there. This information points perhaps to a modern origin, but in such cases it must be borne in mind that people are very fond of suggesting recent circumstances as the cause of the most ancient traditions or customs. The obvious analogy to the incident in the myth of the Pied Piper, and to the Welsh custom at St. Almedha Church, near Brecknock, recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis, where the imitation of a frenzied leader is carried out as a religious ceremony, rather suggests that in this game we may have a survival of a ceremonial so common among early or uncultured people, the chief incident of which is the frenzied dancing of a god-possessed devotee. [3] A variant of the second line is, Ranting, roaring, heely man. I suppose he was Irish, said my informant, as he was named Healey (Miss G.
We ve come to see Georgina. Then follows--] She was coming downstairs with a basin of water, and she fell down and broke her toe, and she s dead. And what shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? And what shall we dress her in? Dress her in red. Red for the soldiers, soldiers, soldiers, Red for the soldiers, and that shan t do. [Then follow blue for the sailors, black for the mourners, and finally--] What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Dress her in white. White for the dead people, dead people, dead people, White for the dead people, and that will do. --Auchencairn, Kirkcudbright (A. C. Haddon). XVII.
Worked in a hotel laundry till dinner time to get eatin money. Hot work. But I swiped a nice dress to wear when I went looking for you, Billy Joe. Yeah, I said, hiding my snicker over the dress. Say, I wanted to thank you for handling my chips. I d have lost my shirt if I hadn t let you show me how. I wanted to slip you a cut, but you bugged out of there. I figured you should handle our money, Billy Joe, she said. Anyway, can t take money for my gift. She had me shaking with excitement.
When once the goal was reached, the victory was celebrated by loud hurrahs and the firing of guns, and was not disturbed until the following Christmas Day. Victory on Christmas Day, added the old man, was so highly esteemed by the whole countryside, that a Bro or Blaenau would as soon lose a cow from his cow-house as the football from his portion of the parish. (_b_) In Gomme s _Village Community_, pp. 241-44, the position of football games as elements in the traditions of race is discussed, and their relationship to a still earlier form of tribal games, where the element of clan feuds is more decidedly preserved, is pointed out. Forfeits Forfeits are incurred in those games in which penalties are exacted from players for non-compliance with the rules of the game; Buff, Contrary, Crosspurposes, Fire, Air, and Water, Follow my Gable, Genteel Lady, Jack s Alive, Old Soldier, Twelve Days of Christmas, Turn the Trencher, Wadds, and others. These games are described under their several titles, and the formula for forfeits is always the same. Small articles belonging to the players must be given by them every time a forfeit is incurred, and these must be redeemed at the close of the game. They are cried in the following manner:--One of the players sits on a chair having the forfeits in her lap. A child kneels on the ground and buries his face in his hands on the lap of the person who holds the forfeits. The crier then takes up indiscriminately one of the forfeits, and holding it up in the sight of all those who have been playing the games (without the kneeling child seeing it), says-- Here s a very pretty thing and a very pretty thing, And what shall be done to [_or_, by] the owner of this very pretty thing? The kneeling child then says what the penance is to be.
=_ In speaking of the players in a solo, misère, or abundance, it is usual to distinguish those opposed to the single player by calling them respectively, Left, Right, and Opposite. [Illustration: Opposite +--------+ | | Left| |Right | | +--------+ The Caller ] This arrangement does not affect the use of the letters A Y B Z, and the terms first, second, third, and fourth hand; indicating the position of the deal, and of the lead. _=Calling.=_ Those solos are easiest which are declared by the eldest hand, or by the dealer; the hardest being those called by second hand. The safest solos are those called on trump strength; but average trumps and winning cards in the plain suits are more advantageous if the caller is not eldest hand. To call a solo on plain suits alone, with only one or two trumps, is extremely dangerous; and a solo called on a single suit must have at least five or six good trumps in order to succeed. _=PLAYING.=_ When a call has been made entirely upon trump strength, it is much better to make tricks by ruffing, than by leading trumps. There is little use for a solo player to hold a tenace in trumps, hoping it will be led to him. If he has good suits, he should make sure of two rounds of trumps by leading the Ace.
Gomme) was played. In the version sent by Mr. H. S. May a ring is formed by the children joining hands. One child stands in the centre--she represents the Mother. The ring of children say the first, third, and every alternate verse. The child in the centre says the second, fourth, and alternate verses, and the game is played as above, except that when the Mother has said the last verse the children call out, Good job, too, and run off, the Mother chasing them as above. The game does not appear to be sung. (_c_) This game is somewhat of a cumulative story, having for its finish the making angry and tormenting of a mother.
Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. [Then follow alternate questions and answers in the same manner for-- (1) dying, (2) dead. Then--] I come in my white dress, white dress, white dress, I come in my white dress, and how will that do? White is for wedding, wedding, wedding, White is for wedding, and that won t do. Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. I come in my blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, I come in my blue dress, and how will that do? Blue is for sailors, sailors, sailors, Blue is for sailors, and that won t do. [Then follow verses as before, beginning-- Very well, ladies. I come in my red dress. Red is for soldiers, Very well, ladies. Then--] I come in my black dress, black dress, black dress, I come in my black dress, and how will that do? Black is for funeral, And that will do To carry poor Jenny to the grave. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
144, we read, These bones are called huckle-bones or coytes. For further information relating to this game, as played by the ancients, the reader may consult _Joannis Meursii Ludibunda, sive de Ludis Græcorum, Liber singularis_ (8vo, Lugd. Bat. 1625), p. 7, and _Dan. Souterii Palamedes_, p. 81; but more particularly, _I Tali ed altri Strumenti lusori degli antichi Romani, discritti da Francesco de Ficoroni_, 4to, Rom. 1734. Against the suggestion that the modern game is derived directly from the Romans, is the fact that it is known in countries never traversed or occupied by the Romans. Thus Dr.
=_ The cards cut, the banker takes a convenient number of them in his hand, or better, spreads them face downward on the table, and slips off the top card, giving it to the player next him on the right, face down. The next card he gives to the player on his left, and the next to himself. He gives another card to the right, to the left, and to himself, and then the players take them up and examine them. Ten cards must remain in the stock for the last deal. _=Irregularities.=_ After the first card is dealt no bets can be made or changed. The cards must be so held that they shall be at all times in full view of the players. Any card found faced in the pack is thrown in the waste basket. Any card once separated from the pack must be taken. If neither of the players want it, the dealer must take it himself.
_=Setting Back.=_ If the player who pitches the trump fails to make the number of points bid, he is set back, and scores nothing for any points he may have made. A player who is set back, either for overbidding his hand, or for refusing to sell and failing to make the number of points offered him, must withdraw from the pool as many white counters as were bid, and add them to his own. For instance: It is A’s sell. A and B each have two to go. B bids three, which A refuses, pitching the trump himself. A makes only two points, B scoring one, and a third player D, another. B and D score one each, but A scores nothing for the two points he made, and must take three white counters from the pool, which will make him five to go. Had the bid which A refused been two only, he would have won the game, as he made two points. In many clubs it is the custom for a player who is set back to add a red counter to the pool.