=_ A straight flush which is ace high. [Illustration: 🃑 🃞 🃝 🃛 🃚] 649739 to 1 When hands are of the same rank, their relative value is determined by the denomination of the cards they contain. For instance: A hand without a pair, sequence, or flush is called by its highest card; “ace high,” or “Jack high,” as the case may be. As between two such hands, the one containing the highest card would be the better, but either would be outclassed by a hand with a pair in it, however small. A hand with a pair of nines in it would outrank one with a pair of sevens, even though the cards accompanying the nines were only a deuce, three and four, while those with the sevens were an ace, King and Queen. But should the pairs be alike in both hands; such as tens, the highest card outside the pair would decide the rank of the hands, and if those were also alike, the next card, or perhaps the fifth would have to be considered. Should the three odd cards in each hand be identical, the hands would be a tie, and would divide any pool to which each had a claim. Two flushes would decide their rank in the same manner. If both were ace and Jack high, the third card in one being a nine, and in the other an eight, the nine would win. In full hands the rank of the triplets decides the value of the hand.
They repeat this thrice, courtesying low. The first to courtesy is placed in the centre of the circle, when the others sing:-- Choose your maidens one by one, One by one, one by one; Choose your maidens one by one-- And down goes (all courtesy) Merrima Tansa! She chooses her maidens. They take her to a distance, when she is secretly told the name of her lover. The remainder of the girls imitate sweeping, and sing several stanzas to the effect that they will sweep the house till the bride comes home, when the bride is now placed within the circle, and from a score to a hundred stanzas, with marching and various imitations of what the lucky bride accomplishes or undergoes, are sung. Each one closes with Down goes Merrima Tansa and the head-ducking; and this wonderful music-drama of childhood is not concluded until the christening of the bride s first-born, with-- Next Sunday morn to church she must gae, A babe on her knee, the best of a-- And down goes Merrima Tansa! Jamieson gives the game as a ring within which one goes round with a handkerchief, with which a stroke is given in succession to every one in the ring; the person who strikes, or the taker, still repeating this rhyme:-- Here I gae round the jingie ring, The jingie ring, the jingie ring, Here I gae round the jingie ring, And through my merry-ma-tanzie. Then the handkerchief is thrown at one in the ring, who is obliged to take it up and go through the same process. He also mentions another account of the game which had been sent him, which describes the game as played in a similar manner to the versions given by Chambers. Stewart, in his _Ben Nevis and Glencoe_, p. 361, records the following rhyme:-- Here we go with merry shout, Up and down and round about, And dance a merry-ma-tandy, but he does not describe the game in detail. Milking Pails [Music] --Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy); London (A.
If three persons play, a triangular board is necessary. This is provided with three sets of holes and three game holes. When a cribbage board is not at hand, the game may be kept by ruling a sheet of paper into ten divisions, and marking them with the figures 1 to 0 on each side: +---------------------------------------+ | 0 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | +---------------------------------------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | +---------------------------------------+ Each player being provided with two coins, one silver and one copper, (or different sizes,) the copper coin can be advanced from point to point to count units, and the silver coin will mark the tens. _=PLAYERS.=_ Cribbage is distinctly a game for two players, although three may play, each for himself, or four, two being partners against the other two. When two play, one is known as the _=dealer=_, and the other as the non-dealer, or the _=pone=_. _=CUTTING.=_ The players cut for the choice of seats, and for the first deal. The lowest cut has the choice, and deals the first hand. The Ace is low.
=_ There are four players, two being partners against the other two. Partners, deal, and seats are cut for as in the ordinary game. _=Dealing.=_ The cards are distributed as in the ordinary game; but it is usual to agree beforehand upon a suit which shall be the trump if the Joker is turned up. _=Playing Alone.=_ The chief peculiarity in Railroad Euchre is in playing alone. Any player announcing to play alone, whether the dealer or not, has the privilege of passing a card, face down, to his partner. In exchange for this, but without seeing it, the partner gives the best card in his hand to the lone player, passing it to him face down. If he has not a trump to give him, he can pass him an ace, or even a King. Even if this card is no better than the one discarded, the lone player cannot refuse it.
I. Have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man, Have you seen the muffin man that lives in Drury Lane O? Yes, I ve seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man; Yes, I ve seen the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane O. --Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy). II. O, have you seen the muffin man, The muffin man, the muffin man; O, have you seen the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane O? --N. W. Lincolnshire (Rev. ---- Roberts).
Harland and Wilkinson believe this game to have left its traces in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A couple link hands and sally forth from _home_, shouting something like Aggery, ag, ag, Ag s gi en warning, and trying to tick or touch with the free hand any of the boys running about separately. These latter try to slip behind the couple and throw their weight on the joined hands to separate them without being first touched or ticked; and if they sunder the couple, each of the severed ones has to carry one home on his back. Whoever is touched takes the place of the toucher in the linked couple (_Legends of Lancashire_, p. 138). The modern name of this game is Prison Bars (_Ibid._, p. 141). There is also a description of the game in a little tract called _Barley Breake; or, A Warning for Wantons_, 1607. It is mentioned in Wilbraham s _Cheshire Glossary_ as an old Cheshire game.