180, says: The neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is held out to him who is to guess--the conjuror--_and it is he who is addressed_, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide conjecture, it may be) he is invoked in the person of Nic Neville (Neivi Nic), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrews in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his quondam popularity among the common people. It will be remembered that this game is mentioned by Scott in _St. Ronan s Well_-- Na, na, said the boy, he is a queer old cull. . .
The game may have lost some of its details in other directions, as there is no apparent reason why the oven is demolished or broken down. See Jack, Jack, the Bread s a-burning. Mother, Mother, the Pot Boils over A number of girls choose one of their number to represent a witch, and another to be a mother. The Witch stands near the corner of a wall, so that she can peep round. Then the Mother counts the children by the seven days of the week, Monday, Tuesday, &c., and appoints another girl to act as guardian over them. She then pretends to go out washing, removing to a short distance so as to be within ear-shot of the other children. As soon as the Mother has gone, the old Witch comes and says, Please, can I light my pipe? Then the children say, Yes, if you won t spit on t hearth. She pretends to light her pipe, but spits on the hearth, and runs away with the girl called Sunday. Then the Guardian, among the confusion, pretends to rush down stairs, and, failing to find Sunday, calls out, Mother, mother, t pot boils over.
Twice again the twinge, the skip. He had no idea where he was until the lights of the Caledonia space board shone below. [Illustration] With a weariness that lay almost beyond the limits of thought, he threw his mind back into rapport with the pin-set, fixing the Lady May s projectile gently and neatly in its launching tube. She was half dead with fatigue, but he could feel the beat of her heart, could listen to her panting, and he grasped the grateful edge of a thanks reaching from her mind to his. THE SCORE They put him in the hospital at Caledonia. The doctor was friendly but firm. You actually got touched by that Dragon. That s as close a shave as I ve ever seen. It s all so quick that it ll be a long time before we know what happened scientifically, but I suppose you d be ready for the insane asylum now if the contact had lasted several tenths of a millisecond longer. What kind of cat did you have out in front of you? Underhill felt the words coming out of him slowly.
_, from highest to lowest, or _vice versa_, until such card is played. CARDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED. 56. All exposed cards are liable to be called, and must be left on the table; but a card is not an exposed card when dropped on the floor, or elsewhere below the table. The following are exposed cards:-- I. Two or more cards played at once. II. Any card dropped with its face upward, or in any way exposed on or above the table, even though snatched up so quickly that no one can name it. 57. If any one play to an imperfect trick the best card on the table, or lead one which is a winning card as against his adversaries, and then lead again, or play several such winning cards, one after the other, without waiting for his partner to play, the latter may be called on to win, if he can, the first or any other of those tricks, and the other cards thus improperly played are exposed cards.
The pegs must only be moved on the lines. The game is continued until one or other of the players has only two pegs left, when the game is won (1st ser., i. 20). Another correspondent in the same journal (ii. 2) says, The game was very generally played in the midland counties under the name of Merrilpeg or Merelles. The twelve pieces I have never seen used, though I have often played with nine. We generally used marbles or draught pieces, and not pegs. The following are the accounts of this game given by the commentators on Shakespeare:-- In that part of Warwickshire where Shakespeare was educated, and the neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with their knives to represent a sort of imperfect chess-board. It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot diameter, sometimes three or four yards.
_=9th Trick.=_ Z seizes this opportunity to get rid of the very dangerous ♢5. If A does not play the ♡A now, it is quite possible that he will take every trick, except one in diamonds. _=10th Trick.=_ If A leads the ♢2, and hearts are led again, he must take all the remaining hearts. By taking three at once he can escape the rest. B sees that if he passes this trick A will at once lead the ♢2, and he will take all the remaining hearts; so he takes these three and throws the lead to Y, who has no chance to injure him. _11th Trick._ Z keeps two clubs, hoping that if Y gets in and leads clubs, B may discard a diamond instead of a heart, in which case Z would get clear. _=No.
If the eldest hand leads without asking his partner’s permission to play, the pone cannot double without the consent of the maker of the trump. Should the pone ask the eldest hand, “Shall I play?” that does not deprive the eldest hand of the right to double. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The trump suit and the value of the tricks settled, the player on the dealer’s left begins by leading any card he pleases. After he has played, the second player, Y, lays his hand face up on the table, and takes no further part in the play beyond availing himself of the privilege of asking his partner if he has none of a suit to which he renounces. From the moment that Y’s cards are exposed the game becomes Dummy, the dealer, Z, playing Y’s cards for him. The dealer gathers the tricks for his side; either adversary may gather for the other. The first six tricks taken by one side make a “book” and all over six count toward game. The tricks should be so laid that they can be readily counted by any player at the table. _=The Revoke.
--London (A. B. Gomme). Mr. Newell, in writing of this game, says that the lamp-lighter or spill was lighted when placed in the hair of the players who made mistakes. He does not mention forfeits being exacted.--_Games_, p. 139. Ghost at the Well One of the party is chosen for Ghost (if dressed in white so much the better); she hides in a corner; the other children are a mother and daughters. The eldest daughter says:-- Mother, mother, please give me a piece of bread and butter.
See Halliwell s _Dictionary_. It is alluded to in Dekker s _Satiromastix_, Our unhansomed-fac d Poet does play at Bo-peepes with your Grace, and cryes All-hidde, as boyes doe. Tourneur, _Rev. Trag._, III., v. 82, A lady can at such Al-hid beguile a wiser man, is quoted in Murray s _Dictionary_ as the first reference. All a Row All a row, a bendy bow, Shoot at a pigeon and kill a crow; Shoot at another and kill his brother; Shoot again and kill a wren, And that ll do for gentlemen. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 386.