Lady of the Land. Lady on the Mountain. Lady on Yonder Hill. Lag. Lammas. Lamploo. Lang Larence. Leap Candle. Leap-frog. Leap the Bullock.
There are six different ways of making these points, and it is possible for one player to make five of them in one deal; but he cannot by any possibility make seven. The following count one point each: 1st. Turning up the _=Jack=_ of trumps. 2nd. Being _=given=_ a point by the dealer. 3rd. Holding the _=Highest=_ trump. 4th. Holding the _=Lowest=_ trump. 5th.
He cut off the sight of her mind and, as he buried his face in the pillow, he caught an image of the Lady May. She _is_ a cat, he thought. That s all she is--a _cat_! But that was not how his mind saw her--quick beyond all dreams of speed, sharp, clever, unbelievably graceful, beautiful, wordless and undemanding. Where would he ever find a woman who could compare with her? --CORDWAINER SMITH [Illustration] * * * * * End of Project Gutenberg s The Game of Rat and Dragon, by Cordwainer Smith *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAME OF RAT AND DRAGON *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy.
There are some occasions for false-card play about which there is little question. Having a sequence in the adverse suit, the Second or Fourth Hand may win with the highest card, especially if the intention is to lead trumps. Holding K Q only, Second Hand may play the King, especially in trumps. Holding A K x, the Fourth Hand should play Ace on a Queen led by an American leader. With such a suit as K J 10 x, after trumps have been exhausted, the Ten is not a safe lead; Jack or fourth-best is better. Holding up the small cards of adverse suits is a common stratagem; and it is legitimate to use any system of false-carding in trumps if it will prevent the adversaries who have led them from counting them accurately. _=Playing to the Score.=_ The play must often be varied on account of the state of the score, either to save or win the game in the hand. If the adversaries appear to be very strong, and likely to go out on the deal, all conventionalities should be disregarded until the game is saved; finesses should be refused, and winning cards played Second Hand on the first round. If the adversaries are exhausting the trumps, it will often be judicious for a player to make what winning cards he has, regardless of all rules for leading, especially if they are sufficient to save the game.
After that the deal must stand, and the packs, if changed, must so remain. 13. It is a misdeal: If the dealer omits to have the pack cut, and the error is discovered before the last card is dealt; or if he deals a card incorrectly, and fails to remedy it before dealing another; or if he counts the cards on the table, or those remaining in the pack; or if it is discovered before all have played to the first trick that any player has not his proper number of cards, the pack being perfect. 14. A misdeal loses the deal unless one of the other players has touched his cards, or in any way interrupted the dealer. 15. If, after the first trick is played to, any two players are found to have more or less than their correct number of cards, the pack being perfect, the one having less shall draw from the hand of the one having more, and each shall pay a forfeit of five counters into the pool. 16. If a player omits to play to any trick, and plays to the following one, he shall not be allowed to correct the error; but shall be compelled to take in the last trick, with whatever hearts it may contain. 17.
Some games are especially selfish; Boston, for instance, in which the four players originally forming the table may monopolise the game for the entire evening, without offering newcomers any chance to cut in. All such games should be limited to a certain number of tournées, at the conclusion of which fresh candidates should be allowed to cut into the table. Technical Terms. G. stands for German; F. for French. Abnehmen or Abheben, G., to cut. Abwerfen, G., to discard.
We ll set a man to watch at night. Suppose the man should fall asleep? Give him a pipe of tobacco to smoke. Suppose the pipe should fall and break? We ll give him a bag of nuts to crack. Suppose the nuts were rotten and bad? We ll give him a horse to gallop around, &c. --Enborne School, Berks (M. Kimber). VIII. London Bridge is broken down, Gran says the little D, London Bridge is broken down, Fair la-dy. Build it up with lime and stone, Gran says the little D, Build it up with lime and stone, Fair la-dy. [Then follow verses beginning with the following lines--] Lime and stone would waste away.
This is sung to the tune given. The incidents in this game are the same throughout. The only difference in all the versions I have collected being in the number of the different positions to be performed, most of them being for right hands, left hands, right feet, left feet, and heads; others, probably older forms, having ears, yourselves, &c. One version, from Eckington, Derbyshire, curiously begins with washing hands and face, combing hair, &c., and then continuing with the Looby game, an apparent mix-up of Mulberry Bush and Looby. Three more versions, Sporle, Cornwall, and Dorsetshire, also have different beginnings, one (Dorsetshire) having the apparently unmeaning I love Antimacassar. (_d_) The origin and meaning of this game appears somewhat doubtful. It is a choral dance, and it may owe its origin to a custom of wild antic dancing in celebration of the rites of some deity in which animal postures were assumed. The Hexham version, Here we come louping [leaping] may probably be the oldest and original form, especially if the conjecture that this game is derived from animal rites is accepted. The term looby, lubin, or luby does not throw much light on the game.
_ A kind of play wherein boys hopping on one leg beat one another with gloves or pieces of leather, and is called Fox to thy hole. Coles, 7th ed. 1711.-- _Ascol._ The play called Fox to the hole.--_Empus._ Ludus Empusæ. Scotch hoppers, or Fox in the hole. A similar game to this is played at Earls Heaton, Yorkshire (Mr. Hardy), and called Goose and Gander.
Melden, G., to announce, claim, or show any counting combination of cards. Méler, F., to shuffle. Memory Duplicate, playing over the same hands at the same table; the players who held the N and S cards getting the E and W for the overplay. Menage, F., gathering and arranging the cards for the succeeding deal when two packs are used. Milking, taking a card from the bottom and the top of the pack at the same time with the forefinger and thumb. Mischen, G., to shuffle.
False Hands.=_ If a false opener does not discover his mistake until after he has drawn cards, his hand is foul, and must be abandoned. As a penalty he must put up an ante for each of the other players at the table for another Jack. _=45. Betting the Hands.=_ The opener makes the first bet; or, if he has withdrawn, the player next on his left. Should the opener decline to bet after the draw, he must show his openers before abandoning his hand. He need not show the cards he has drawn. If no bet is made, the last player holding cards takes the pool without showing his hand. If a bet is made, the game proceeds as in the ordinary pools.
If the dealer reshuffles the pack after it has been properly cut, he loses his deal. Beginning on his left, the dealer must give to each player in rotation three cards at a time for three rounds. No trump is turned. The deal passes to the left. There must be a new deal by the same dealer if any card is found faced in the pack; or if the pack is proved incorrect or imperfect; but any previous cutting or scores made with the imperfect pack stand good. The adversaries may demand a new deal if any card is exposed during the deal, provided they have not touched a card. If an adversary exposes a card, the dealer may elect to deal again. If a new deal is not demanded, cards exposed in dealing cannot be called. The adversaries may stop a player dealing out of turn, or with the wrong pack, provided they do so before the last three cards are dealt, alter which the deal stands good. _=Misdealing.
If Dummy has A J, and leads J, put on the Queen; it may make the 9 or 10 good in your partner’s hand. With A x x, Dummy leading Jack, play the Ace. With any fourchette, cover the card led. If Dummy remains with one or two small cards of a suit that has been led, and you have the best, play it on the second round. Dummy’s play is evidently for the ruff, and if the declarer has not the second best, your partner has. If you have King, and only one or two small cards, Dummy leading Queen from Q 10 x x, play your King. You cannot save yourself; but you may make the 9 good in partner’s hand. If you have three or more small cards, do not play the King, for either partner or the declarer must be short in the suit. So if Dummy leads Jack from J 10 and others, play the King with a short suit. If partner has Queen you establish it; if not, you cannot make a trick in the suit.
An illustration of the form of the merelle table and the lines upon it, as it appeared in the fourteenth century, is given by him, and he observes that the lines have not been varied. The black spots at every angle and intersection of the lines are the places for the men to be laid upon. The men are different in form and colour for distinction s sake, and from the moving these men backwards and forwards, as though they were dancing a morris, I suppose the pastime received the name of Nine Men s Morris, but why it should have been called Five-penny Morris I do not know. The manner of playing is briefly thus:--Two persons, having each of them nine pieces or men, lay them down alternately, one by one, upon the spots, and the business of either party is to prevent his antagonist from placing three of his pieces so as to form a row of three without the intervention of an opponent piece. If a row be formed, he that made it is at liberty to take up one of his competitor s pieces from any part he thinks most to his own advantage, excepting he has made a row, which must not be touched, if he have another piece upon the board that is not a component part of that row. When all the pieces are laid down they are played backwards and forwards in any direction that the lines run, but can only move from one spot to another at one time. He that takes off all his antagonist s pieces is the conqueror. The rustics, when they have not materials at hand to make a table, cut the lines in the same form upon the ground and make a small hole for every dot. They then collect stones of different forms or colours for the pieces, and play the game by depositing them in the holes in the same manner that they are set over the dots on the table. Hence Shakespeare, describing the effects of a wet and stormy season, says-- The folds stand empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrain flock-- The Nine Men s Morris is filled up with mud.
If a player says. “I can win the rest,” “The rest are ours,” “It makes no difference how you play,” or words to that effect, or if he plays or exposes his remaining cards before his partner has played to the current trick, his partner’s cards must be laid face up on the table and are liable to be called. SEC. 3. All cards liable to be called must be placed face up on the table and so left until played. A player must lead or play them when lawfully called, provided he can do so without revoking; the call may be repeated at each or any trick until the card is played. A player cannot, however, be prevented from leading or playing a card liable to be called; if he can get rid of it in the course of a play no penalty remains. SEC. 4. The holder of a card liable to be called can be required to play it only by the adversary on his right.
If any of the three, A, B or D can beat C they divide the pool, B getting his third, although he did not contribute to the call. This game is a pure gamble; except that a bold player may occasionally bluff the field off. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Poker and its congeners have received more attention from the greeks than any other family of card games. In fact it is generally believed that the term greek, as applied to a card sharper, had its origin in the Adam of the poker family, which was a gambling game introduced by the Greeks in Italy. So numerous and so varied are the methods of cheating at Poker that it is an axiom among gamblers that if a pigeon will not stand one thing he will another. The best informed make it a rule never to play Poker with strangers, because they realize that it is impossible for any but a professional gambler to know half the tricks employed by the poker sharp. It is a notorious fact that even the shrewdest gamblers are continually being taken in by others more expert than themselves. What chance then has the honest card player? There are black sheep in all flocks, and it may be well to give a few hints to those who are in the habit of playing in mixed companies. Never play with a man who looks attentively at the faces of the cards as he gathers them for his deal; or who stands the pack on edge, with the faces of the cards towards him, and evens up the bunch by picking out certain cards, apparently because they are sticking up.
Pools not won remain until the next deal. After the pools round the edge are all decided, the players bet for the centre pool, or pochen. Any player with a pair, or three of a kind, wishing to bet on them, puts as many counters as he pleases into the centre pool, and any player willing to bet against him must put in a like amount. There is no raising these bets, and the players in order to the left of the dealer have the first say as to betting, or passing. The higher pair wins. Threes beat pairs, and four of a kind is the best hand possible. This pool settled, the play of the cards follows. Eldest hand leads any card he pleases and each in turn to the left must follow in sequence and suit, playing the 10 on the 9, the J on the 10, etc., until the K is reached. The player who has the King, or the highest card, if the King is in the stock, starts again with any card he pleases.
--MISCELLANEOUS. SEC. 1. If any one calls attention in any manner to the trick before his partner has played thereto, the adversary last to play to the trick may require the offender’s partner to play his highest or lowest of the suit led, and, if he has none of that suit, to trump or not to trump the trick. SEC 2. A player has the right to remind his partner that it is his privilege to enforce a penalty and also to inform him of the penalty he can enforce. SEC. 3. A player has the right to prevent his partner from committing any irregularity, and for that purpose, may ask his partner whether or not he has a card of a suit to which he has renounced on a trick which has not been turned and quitted. SEC.
At the last word they all fall down. See Merry-ma-tansa. Jinkie A game among children, in which they run round a table trying to catch one whose business is by quick turns to elude them.--Jamieson. Jock and Jock s Man A juvenile sport in which the _bon camarada_ is to repeat all the pranks which the leader can perform.--Brockett s _North Country Words_. See Follow my Gable, Follow my Leader. Jockie Blind-man Scotch name for Blind Man s Buff. --Jamieson. See Blind Man s Buff.
13. _=Rouge=_ or _=Noir=_. Red or Black. The foregoing are the payments at Monte Carlo; but wheels with less numbers are scaled down accordingly. The players can bet on the zero if they choose, and they will be paid if it comes up, 35 for 1, but all other bets are lost. In wheels with two zeros, red and black, the bank wins on the colour which does not come, and the bets on the right colour are neither paid nor taken, but must remain until the next turn of the wheel. This is now the practice at Monte Carlo, with the single-zero wheels. _=Systems.=_ As at Faro, gamblers at Roulette are never tired of devising systems to beat the game; but none of them are of any further use than to afford a little passing amusement to their inventors. Persons who are interested in systems will find in the New York Sun, July 5, 1896, a very interesting tabulation of every roll of the ball at Monte Carlo for seven successive days, 4,012 in all, of which 120 were zeros.
It also made the game brisker. We have since also made a limit, sometimes of four minutes, sometimes of five minutes, to the interval for adjustment and deliberation after one move is finished and before the next move begins. This further removes the game from the chess category, and approximates it to the likeness of active service. Most of a general s decisions, once a fight has begun, must be made in such brief intervals of time. (But we leave unlimited time at the outset for the planning.) As to our time-keeping, we catch a visitor with a stop-watch if we can, and if we cannot, we use a fair-sized clock with a second-hand: the player not moving says Go, and warns at the last two minutes, last minute, and last thirty seconds. But I think it would not be difficult to procure a cheap clock--because, of course, no one wants a very accurate agreement with Greenwich as to the length of a second--that would have minutes instead of hours and seconds instead of minutes, and that would ping at the end of every minute and discharge an alarm note at the end of the move. That would abolish the rather boring strain of time-keeping. One could just watch the fighting. Moreover, in our desire to bring the game to a climax, we decided that instead of a fight to a finish we would fight to some determined point, and we found very good sport in supposing that the arrival of three men of one force upon the back line of the opponent s side of the country was of such strategic importance as to determine the battle.
How many miles to Gandigo? Eighty-eight almost, or quite. Can I [we] get there by candle-light? Yes, if your legs are long and light. Open the gate as high as the sky, And let the king and his queen go by. --Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 230, 231). VIII. How many miles to Banbury? Three score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. But mind the old witch doesn t catch you. --London (Miss Dendy).
_=The Side Stroke.=_ It is a popular delusion that the only way to change the course of a ball is by giving it “twist,” “English,” or “side.” Side has little or no influence on the cue ball until it touches a cushion. Striking above or below the centre is all that is necessary. If it is required to vary the angle at which the object ball is to be struck, the distance below the centre will change the angle of direction in the cue ball without any side stroke. The art of accomplishing this is called _=compensation=_, an illustration of which is given in the diagram, A being the cue ball, and B the object ball. This is a half draw or force shot, the ball being struck about half way between its centre and the cloth. If we draw imaginary lines connecting the centres of A-B and B-C, and bisect the angle, we get the point D, which the cue ball must strike to make the carrom. This will drive the object ball in the direction D-E; but if it is desirable that the object ball should go more in the direction G-F, so as to secure a better position for the next shot, the cue ball will have to strike at G, which will make a draw shot, bringing it back in the direction H, securing the position, but missing the count. In this position the ignorant player puts on side, but all that is necessary to compensate for this deviation in the point of impact is to approach the point of the cue toward the centre of the ball the exact distance that the point G is from the point D.
No player is allowed to bid more than fourteen. If he will not bid, he must say: “I pass.” A bid having been regularly made, any following player must bid higher or pass. There are no second bids. A bid once made can neither be amended nor withdrawn. _=Irregular Bids.=_ If any player bids before the eldest hand has bid or passed, both the player in error and his partner lose their right to bid; but the side not in error must bid to decide which of them shall name the trump. If the eldest hand has decided, and the pone bids without waiting for the dealer’s partner, the pone loses his bid, and the dealer may bid before his partner. If the dealer bids without waiting for his partner, both lose their bids; but the pone may overbid the eldest hand. If the dealer’s partner has bid, and the dealer bids without waiting for the pone, the dealer loses his bid.