_=Misdealing.=_ If the dealer exposes a card belonging to his adversary or to the stock, the pone may demand a new deal; but if either player exposes any of his own cards the deal stands good. If too many cards are given to either player, and the error is discovered before the dealer plays to the first trick, there must be a new deal. If either player has too few cards, the pone may demand a new deal, or may allow the dealer to supply the deficiency from the top of the stock. If any card is found exposed in the pack, there must be a new deal. If a card faced in the stock is not discovered until the first trick has been played to by the dealer, the exposed card must be turned face down, without disturbing its position. If the pack is found to be imperfect, the deal in which it is discovered is void; but all previous scores and cuts made with that pack stand good. In all misdeals the same dealer deals again. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ After the trump is turned, the pone begins by leading any card he pleases.
Walking arm-in-arm is a sign in Dorsetshire that a couple are married. The mention of the roast beef and plum pudding for dinner has probably had its origin in the wedding dinner or breakfast, and the inviting of friends to assemble for the wedding dinner. The word Isabella may have been originally something quite different from the name of a girl. I am inclined to think the word was not the name of a person at all; possibly it was something addressed to a particular person in words the sense of which are now lost, and the nearest idea to it was this name. The same thing may also apply to the word farewell, and hence the incongruity of the first few lines in nearly all versions. Jack s Alive. A number of people sit in a row, or on chairs round a parlour. A lighted wooden spill or taper is handed to the first, who says-- Jack s alive, and likely to live; If he dies in your hand you ve a forfeit to give. The one in whose hand the light expires has to pay a forfeit. As the spill is getting burnt out the lines are said very quickly, as everybody is anxious not to have to pay the forfeit.
The trumps are usually placed at right angles to the line. The game is decided and settled for as in the ordinary Block Game. _=SEBASTOPOL.=_ In this variety of the Block Game, four persons play. Each takes seven bones, and the double six sets. Nothing but sixes can be played until both sides and both ends of the first set have been played to. When these five dominoes have been set, any of the four ends may be played to. Each player in turn must play or say, “go.” The game is decided and settled for as in the ordinary Block Game. _=BERGEN GAME.
Tylor says: It is interesting to notice the wide distribution and long permanence of these trifles in history when we read the following passage from Petronius Arbiter, written in the time of Nero:-- Trimalchio, not to seem moved by the loss, kissed the boy, and bade him get up on his back. Without delay the boy climbed on horseback on him, and slapped him on the shoulders with his hand, laughing and calling out, Bucca, bucca, quot sunt hic? --_Petron. Arbitri Satiræ_, by Buchler, p. 84 (other readings are _buccæ_ or _bucco_). --_Primitive Culture_, i. 67. Buck i t Neucks A rude game amongst boys.--Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. Buckerels A kind of play used by boys in London streets in Henry VIII. s time, now disused, and I think forgot (Blount s _Glossographia_, p.
D. Richardson. Hersham _Folk-lore Record_, vol. v. Redhill Miss G. Hope. SUSSEX { Parish s _Dialect_, Holloway s { _Dictionary_, Toone s _Dictionary_. Hurstmonceux Miss Chase. Shipley, Horsham, West { Miss R. H.
] Black is not deep enough, deep enough, That won t do. What shall we follow in, follow in? We ll follow her in crape, crape [pronounced _cray-ape_]. You may follow her in crape, crape, You may follow her in crape, That will do. --Deptford (Miss E. Chase). XVI. I ve come to see Georgina, Georgina, Georgina, I ve come to see Georgina, how s she to-day? She s upstairs washing, washing, washing, She s upstairs washing, and can t get away. O very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, We ll come another day. We ve come to see Georgina, Georgina, Georgina, We ve come to see Georgina, how s she to-day? She s upstairs ironing, ironing, ironing, She s upstairs ironing, and can t get away. [Then the two verses are repeated-- O very well, ladies.
If the object ball is reached before this retrograde motion is exhausted, the effect will be to stop the forward motion of the cue ball, and to give what is left of the retrograde motion full play, making the cue ball return. The two great mistakes made by beginners in playing draw shots are that they pull the cue back, instead of driving it clear through the ball aimed at, and that they strike so hard that the forward motion of the cue ball is too strong for the retrograde motion to overcome it, or the object ball to stop it. It is never necessary to strike harder than sufficient to reach the object ball and get back to the carrom ball, unless one is playing for position. When the balls are so close together that to run the cue through the ball would make a foul shot, the draw may still be made by pointing the cue off to the side, and pushing it past the cue ball, instead of through it. This will secure the retrograde motion, but accompanied by a great deal of twist, which must be calculated for if the cue ball is to strike a cushion. A short draw may also be made by using the pinch. [Illustration] _=The Massé.=_ Most players imagine this to be a very difficult shot, but it is extremely simple if the principle of the direction of the cue and the effect of the pinch are kept in view. If we place the three balls in a straight line, about four inches apart, we have the simplest form of the massé. To find the exact spot at which the cue ball must be struck, join the centres of the cue and object balls by an imaginary line A-B.
MATRIMONY. Any number of persons may play, and a full pack of fifty-two cards is used. Each player should be provided with an equal number of counters, to which a trifling value may be attached. A strip of paper is placed in the centre of the table, marked as follows:-- +------------+-----------+--------------+-------+-------+ | Matrimony. | Intrigue. | Confederacy. | Pair. | Best. | +------------+-----------+--------------+-------+-------+ Any King and Queen is _=Matrimony=_; any Queen and Jack is _=Intrigue=_; any King and Jack is _=Confederacy=_; any two cards of the same denomination form a _=Pair=_, and the diamond ace is always _=Best=_. The players draw, and the lowest card deals: ace is low.
_=At No-trump.=_ The declarer’s first care in a no-trumper must be to select the suit that he will play for. Four simple rules cover this choice:-- 1. Always lead from the weak hand to the strong if the suit is not already established. 2. Play for the suit in which you have the greatest number of cards between the two hands, because it will probably yield the greatest number of tricks. 3. If two suits are equal in number, play for the one in which you have the greatest number of cards massed in one hand. That is, if you have two suits of eight cards each, select the one that has six of those cards in one hand, in preference to the suit with four in each hand. 4.
-+ | | . | | . | | . | | . | +---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+ | | . | | .
_=Players.=_ The regular game is played by two persons, one of whom is known as the dealer, and the other as the pone. They cut for seats and deal, the highest cut having the choice. _=Stakes.=_ Sixty-six is played for so much a game, or for so much a point, the loser’s score being deducted from the winner’s. If the loser has not scored at all, it is usually counted a double game. _=Dealing.=_ The cards having been shuffled and presented to the pone to be cut, the dealer gives six cards to each player, three at a time, dealing first to his adversary. There are several ways of making the trump, one of which should be agreed upon before play begins. One way is for the pone to draw a card from the top, the middle, or the bottom of the talon, after the dealer has given each player his six cards.
In playing for a schneider, it is often advisable to continue the trumps, even after the adversaries are exhausted, so that they shall not know which suit to keep for the last trick. _=Laying out the Skat.=_ In a Frage or a Tourné, some judgment is required in discarding for the Skat. It is often necessary to lay aside the Ace and Ten of trumps if there is any danger that the adversaries may catch them. Unguarded Tens should always be laid out, and it is a good general principle to get rid of one suit entirely, so that you can trump it. It is a common practice to put in the Skat the Ace and Ten of a suit of which you hold also the King. When you lead the King, if Mittelhand has none of the suit he is sure to fatten the trick for his partner, thinking he must have Ace or Ten. With the Ten, King, and small cards of a plain suit, lay the Ten and King in the Skat. _=The Adversaries=_ should combine against the single player by getting him between them if possible. If you sit on the left of the player, lead your short suits up to him; but if you sit on his right, lead your longest suit through him.
=_ Vingt-et-un is sometimes played with a pool. Each player contributes one counter at the start, and the pool is afterward fed by penalties. Every player who is créve puts in a counter; all ties with the dealer pay one, and the dealer pays one for any irregularity in dealing. The pool may be kept to pay for refreshments, like the kitty in Poker, or it may be won by the first natural shown, as may be agreed. _=Probabilities.=_ The only point in the game is for a player to know what hands to stand on, and what to draw to. The dealer is guided by the cards dealt to other players, and by what they ask for. The other players should stand on 17, but draw on 16. In practice it has been found that the odds are about 2 to 1 in favour of drawing at 16; 3 to 1 for drawing at 15. The rules for drawing, etc.
When there are more than seven candidates for play, two tables should be formed, unless the majority vote against it. In some localities it is the custom for the dealer to take no cards when there are eight players, which is thought to make a better game than two tables of only four players each. When the sixty-card pack is used, eight players may take cards. _=CUTTING.=_ The players who shall form the table, and their positions at the beginning of the game, must be decided by throwing round a card to each candidate, face up, or by drawing cards from an outspread pack. If there are more than eight candidates, the four cutting the highest cards should play together at one table, and the others at another table. If there are an even number of candidates, the tables divide evenly, but if the number is odd, the smaller table is formed by those cutting the highest cards. The table formed, the pack must be shuffled and spread, and positions drawn for. The player cutting the lowest card has the choice of seats, and must deal the first hand. The player cutting the next lowest has the next choice, and so on, until all are seated.
2.] Forby has, _Morris_, an ancient game, in very common modern use. In Shakespeare it is called nine men s _morris_, from its being played with nine men, as they were then, and still are called. We call it simply _morris_. Probably it took the name from a fancied resemblance to a dance, in the motions of the men. Dr. Johnson professes that he knew no more of it than that it was some rustic game. Another commentator speaks of it as common among shepherds boys in some parts of Warwickshire. It cannot well be more common there than here, and it is not particularly rustic. Shepherds boys and other clowns play it on the green turf, or on the bare ground; cutting or scratching the lines, on the one or the other.
The one child stands in the centre. The ring of children dance round the way of the sun, first slowly and then more rapidly. First all the children in the ring bow to the one in the centre, and she bows back. Then they dance round singing the first and second verses, the second verse being addressed to the child in the centre. She then whispers a boy s name to one in the ring. This girl then sings the third verse. None in the ring are supposed to be able to answer, and the name of the chosen boy is then said aloud by the girl who asked the question. If the name is satisfactory the ring sing the fourth verse, and the two players then retire and walk round a little. If the name given is not satisfactory the ring sing the fifth verse, and another child must be chosen. When the two again stand in the centre the boys sing the sixth verse.
THE SPANISH GAME OF BILLIARDS. This game is played in the South, California, and in Mexico and Cuba, and is played with two white and one red ball, and five pins placed similar to those in Pin Pool. The red ball is placed on the red-ball spot, and the first player strikes at it from within the baulk semicircle. The game is scored by winning and losing hazards, carroms, and by knocking over the pins. It is usually played thirty points up. The player who knocks down a pin after striking a ball gains _two_ points, if he knocks down two pins he gains _four_ points, and so on, scoring two points for each pin knocked down. If he knock down the middle pin alone he gains _five_ points. The player who pockets the red ball gains _three_ points and two for each pin knocked down by the same stroke. The player who pockets the white ball gains two points, and two for each pin knocked over with the same stroke. Each carrom counts two.
|your head. |your head. | |24.| -- | -- | -- | |25.| -- | -- | -- | |26.| -- | -- | -- | |27.| -- |True love not dead, he| -- | | | |sends letter to turn | | | | |your head. | | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- | -- | |30.
W. Gregor, Mr. S. O. Addy, and Miss Fowler, who very generously placed collections at my disposal, which had been prepared before they knew of my project; also Miss Burne, Miss L. E. Broadwood, and others, for kindly obtaining variants and tunes I should not otherwise have received. To the many versions now printed for the first time I have added either a complete transcript of, where necessary, or a reference to, where that was sufficient, printed versions of games to be found in the well-known collections of Halliwell and Chambers, the publications of the Folk-lore and Dialect Societies, Jamieson s, Nares , and Halliwell s Dictionaries, and other printed sources of information. When quoting from a printed authority, I have as far as possible given the exact words, and have always given the reference. I had hoped to have covered in my collection the whole field of games as played by children in the United Kingdom, but it will be seen that many counties in each country are still unrepresented; and I shall be greatly indebted for any games from other places, which would help to make this collection more complete.
Here is the premeditation, the thrill, the strain of accumulating victory or disaster--and no smashed nor sanguinary bodies, no shattered fine buildings nor devastated country sides, no petty cruelties, none of that awful universal boredom and embitterment, that tiresome delay or stoppage or embarrassment of every gracious, bold, sweet, and charming thing, that we who are old enough to remember a real modern war know to be the reality of belligerence. This world is for ample living; we want security and freedom; all of us in every country, except a few dull-witted, energetic bores, want to see the manhood of the world at something better than apeing the little lead toys our children buy in boxes. We want fine things made for mankind--splendid cities, open ways, more knowledge and power, and more and more and more--and so I offer my game, for a particular as well as a general end; and let us put this prancing monarch and that silly scare-monger, and these excitable patriots, and those adventurers, and all the practitioners of Welt Politik, into one vast Temple of War, with cork carpets everywhere, and plenty of little trees and little houses to knock down, and cities and fortresses, and unlimited soldiers--tons, cellars-full--and let them lead their own lives there away from us. My game is just as good as their game, and saner by reason of its size. Here is War, done down to rational proportions, and yet out of the way of mankind, even as our fathers turned human sacrifices into the eating of little images and symbolic mouthfuls. For my own part, I am _prepared_. I have nearly five hundred men, more than a score of guns, and I twirl my moustache and hurl defiance eastward from my home in Essex across the narrow seas. Not only eastward. I would conclude this little discourse with one other disconcerting and exasperating sentence for the admirers and practitioners of Big War. I have never yet met in little battle any military gentleman, any captain, major, colonel, general, or eminent commander, who did not presently get into difficulties and confusions among even the elementary rules of the Battle.
| | |my dear. |ma-day. | | | 13.| -- | -- | -- | | 14.| -- | -- | -- | | 15.| -- | -- | -- | | 16.| -- | -- | -- | | 17.| -- | -- | -- | | 18.| -- | -- | -- | | 19.| -- | -- | -- | | 20.
_=COUNTERS.=_ As each deal is a complete game in itself it must be settled for in counters, to which some value is usually attached. One player is selected for the banker, and before play begins each of the others purchases from him a certain number of counters, usually fifty. When any player’s supply is exhausted, he can purchase more, either from the banker or from another player. In many places counters are not used, and the value of the game is designated by the coins that take their place. In “penny nap,” English coppers are used in settling; sixpences in “sixpenny nap,” and so on. In America, nickel and quarter nap are the usual forms. _=PLAYERS.=_ Any number from two to six can play; but four is the best game. If five or six play it is usual for the dealer to give himself no cards.
In this manner it will be seen that the winner of each trick must always get a card which is known to his adversary, while the loser of the trick gets one which remains unknown. When the talon is exhausted, the thirteen cards in each hand should be known to both players if they have been observant, and the end game becomes a problem in double dummy. _=STAKES.=_ The game is usually played for so much a point, the player having won the majority of the tricks receiving the difference between the number of his tricks and those of his adversary. Each game is complete in one hand. In many respects the game resembles single-handed Hearts, except that in Hearts none of the cards drawn are shown. CHINESE WHIST. _=CARDS.=_ Chinese Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing. _=MARKERS.
ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE APPENDIX-- LITTLE WARS AND KRIEGSPIEL I OF THE LEGENDARY PAST LITTLE WARS is the game of kings--for players in an inferior social position. It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one hundred and fifty--and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple--by girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women. This is to be a full History of Little Wars from its recorded and authenticated beginning until the present time, an account of how to make little warfare, and hints of the most priceless sort for the recumbent strategist.... But first let it be noted in passing that there were prehistoric Little Wars. This is no new thing, no crude novelty; but a thing tested by time, ancient and ripe in its essentials for all its perennial freshness--like spring. There was a Someone who fought Little Wars in the days of Queen Anne; a garden Napoleon. His game was inaccurately observed and insufficiently recorded by Laurence Sterne.
[Illustration: SPREADING THE PACK.] The four having been selected, the cards are again shuffled and spread, and partners are cut for; the two lowest pairing against the two highest; the lowest of the four is the dealer, and has the choice of cards and seats. _=TIES.=_ As between cards of equal value in cutting, the heart is the lowest, diamonds next, then clubs and then spades. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at the bridge table are indicated by letters; A and B are partners against Y and Z; Z always represents the dealer, who always makes the first bid, A being the second bidder, Y the third and B the fourth. [Illustration: +-----+ | Y | |A B| | Z | +-----+ ] _=DEALING.=_ The cards having been properly shuffled the dealer, Z, presents them to the pone, B, to be cut. At least four cards must be left in each packet. Beginning at his left, the dealer distributes the cards one at a time in rotation until the pack is exhausted.
In such cases the red counters representing it should be changed for their value in white ones, so that the forfeited share may be divided in three parts. The difference between _=Limited Loo=_, and _=Unlimited Loo=_, is in the amounts paid into the pool. In Limited Loo the penalty is always three or six red counters. In Unlimited Loo, it is the same for irregularities, and for infraction of the rules; but any player failing in his undertaking must put up for the next pool an amount equal to that in the current pool. When two or more fail on successive deals the pool increases with surprising rapidity. A player at twenty-five cent Loo has been known to lose $320 in three consecutive deals. _=DEALING.=_ The pack having been properly shuffled and cut, the dealer gives three cards to each player, one at a time in rotation, beginning on his left. The first deal, and every deal in which the pool contains only the three red counters put up by the dealer, is known as a _=simple=_, and no trump card is turned up until one or two tricks have been played to. If there are more than three red counters in the pool, it is known as a _=double=_, and an extra hand must be dealt for the _=widow=_, and after all have been helped, the next card in the pack is turned up for a trump.