Clement Day custom (Poole s _Staffordshire Customs, &c._, p. 36) and the northern Hallowe en custom (Brockett s _North-Country Words_) probably indicate the origin of this game from an ancient rite. Boggle about the Stacks A favourite play among young people in the villages, in which one hunts several others (Brockett s _North-Country Words_). The game is alluded to in one of the songs given by Ritson (ii. 3), and Jamieson describes it as a Scottish game. See Barley-break. Boggle-bush The child s play of finding the hidden person in the company.--Robinson s _Whitby Glossary_. See Hide and Seek.
Three eights will beat an eight and two braggers. The dealer must put up an ante before the cards are cut. This ante may be any amount he pleases within the betting limit. No player can straddle or raise this ante until the cards are dealt. Beginning on his left the dealer distributes the cards face down, and one at a time, until each player has received three. Beginning with the age, [eldest hand,] each player in turn must put up an amount equal to the dealer’s ante, or abandon his hand. He may, if he chooses, raise the ante any further amount within the betting limit. All those following him must meet the total sum put up by any individual player, increase it, or pass out. In this respect Brag is precisely similar to the betting after the draw at Poker. If no one will see the dealer’s ante, he must be paid one white counter by each of the other players, and the deal passes to the left.
You play the game for points; you score 100 for the victory, and 10 for every gun you hold or are in a position to take, 1-1/2 for every cavalry-man, 1 for every infantry-man still alive and uncaptured, 1/2 for every man of yours prisoner in the hands of the enemy, and 1/2 for every prisoner you have taken. If the battle is still undecided when both forces are reduced below fifteen men, the battle is drawn and the 100 points for victory are divided. Note--This game can be fought with any sized force, but if it is fought with less than 50 a side, the minimum must be 10 a side. (2) The Blow at the Rear game is decided when at least three men of one force reach any point in the back line of their antagonist. He is then supposed to have suffered a strategic defeat, and he must retreat his entire force over the back line in six moves, i.e. six of his moves. Anything left on the field after six moves capitulates to the victor. Points count as in the preceding game, but this lasts a shorter time and is better adapted to a cramped country with a short back line. With a long rear line the game is simply a rush at some weak point in the first player s line by the entire cavalry brigade of the second player.
Another version is that the child in the centre, whilst the others danced around him in a circle, saying, Pig in the middle and can t get out, replies, I ve lost my key but I will get out, and throws the whole weight of his body suddenly on the clasped hands of a couple, to try and unlock them. When he had succeeded he changed the words to, I ve broken your locks, and I have got out. One of the pair whose hands he had opened took his place, and he joined the ring.--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 50). (_b_) Mr. S. O. Addy says the following lines are said or sung in a game called T Bull s i t Barn, but he does not know how it is played:-- As I was going o er misty moor I spied three cats at a mill-door; One was white and one was black, And one was like my granny s cat. I hopped o er t style and broke my heel, I flew to Ireland very weel, Spied an old woman sat by t fire, Sowing silk, jinking keys; Cat s i t cream-pot up to t knees, Hen s i t hurdle crowing for day, Cock s i t barn threshing corn, I ne er saw the like sin I was born.
5 for _=Left Pedro=_, or Five of the same colour as the trump suit. All points count to the side winning them. Any trumps found among the discards at the end of the hand count for the side that made the trump. At the end of the hand, the number of points won by each side is added up, and the lower deducted from the higher, the difference being scored by the winners of the majority. If the result is a tie, neither scores. For instance: If A-B make 11, Y-Z must make the remaining 3, which deducted from 11 leaves 8 points for A-B to score. If the side naming the trump suit fails to make as many points as they bid, they score nothing for that deal, and the number bid is scored by the adversaries, in addition to any other points that the adversaries may have made in play. The number bid and the number actually won, must be compared before deducting the points made by the adversaries. The side first making fifty-one points wins the game. * * * * * _=Text Books.
In cutting, the ace is low. _=PLAYERS.=_ Four persons cut for partners, the two highest playing against the two lowest, the lowest cut having the choice of seats and cards and dealing the first hand. _=DEALING.=_ The cards shuffled and cut, thirteen are given to each player, one at a time in rotation to the left. No trump is turned, as every hand is played without a trump. _=MISDEALING.=_ In case of any irregularity in the deal, the same dealer must deal again. The laws governing misdeals are the same as at whist or bridge. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.
NORTHUMBERLAND { Brockett s _Provincial Words_, ed. { 1846. Hexham Miss J. Barker. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE Miss Peacock. Long Eaton Miss Youngman. Nottingham Miss Winfield, Miss Peacock. Ordsall Miss Matthews. OXFORDSHIRE Aubrey s _Remains_, ed. 1880.
You have K x in one suit, a losing card in another, and a winning card. You want all four tricks to save the game. Play the King, and then the small card; for if your partner has not the Ace and another winning card you must lose the game. You have a losing trump, and Q x x of a suit in which Dummy has K 10 x. If you want one trick, play the losing trump, counting on partner for an honour in the plain suit. If you must have two tricks, lead the Queen, trusting your partner to hold Ace. _=Leading up to Dummy.=_ The best thing for the third hand, or pone, to do, when he does not return his partner’s suit, and has no very strong suit of his own, is to lead up to Dummy’s weak suits, and to lead a card that Dummy cannot beat, if possible. The general principle of leading up to weakness suggests that we should know what weakness is. Dummy may be considered weak in suits of which he holds three or four small cards, none higher than an 8; Ace and one or two small cards; or King and one or two small cards.
2.] (_c_) Versions of this game, almost identical with the Leicester version given here (with the exception that the word wealth ends the second line instead of pelf ), have been sent me from East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan); Epworth, Doncaster (Mr. C. C. Bell); Settle, Yorks. (Rev. W. S. Sykes); Derbyshire (Mrs.
Heal me! I m to have a sign! she wailed. Well, she got one. I took her to my room, pointed at the dresser. One of the glasses on the tray beside a pitcher rose, floated into the bath and, after we had both heard the water run, came back through the air and tilted to trickle a few drops of water onto her head. Her words gave her away--she was no mystic. She swung her eyes back to me: TK! she gasped. She recoiled from me. She d had a viper to her bosom. Heal me! I snapped at her. You ve had your sign, and I m your darlin Billy.
W. Gregor). Jolly Fishermen [Music] --Tean, North Staffs. (Miss Burne). I. They were two jolly fishermen, They were two jolly fishermen, They were two jolly fishermen, And just come from the sea, And just come from the sea. They cast their nets into the sea, And jolly fish caught we, And jolly fish caught we, And jolly fish caught we, They cast their nets into the sea, And jolly fish caught we. --Tean and Cheadle, North Staffs. (Miss Burne). II.
Mr. J. P. Emslie writes, My mother learned this from her mother, who was a native of St. Laurence, in the Isle of Thanet. The game possibly belongs to Kent. Bicky In Somersetshire the game of Hide and Seek. To _bik ee_ is for the seekers to go and lean their heads against a wall, so as not to see where the others go to hide.--Elworthy s _Dialect_. See Hide and Seek.
The rules of the American Carrom Game, except where they conflict with the foregoing rules, govern this game also. BOTTLE POOL. The game of Bottle Pool is played on a pool table with one white ball, the 1 and 2 ball, and pool-bottle. The 1 and 2 balls must be spotted, respectively, at the foot of the table, at the left and right diamond nearest each pocket, and the pool-bottle is placed standing on its neck on the spot in the centre of the table, and when it falls it must be set up, if possible, where it rests. Carrom on the two object-balls counts 1 point; Pocketing the 1 ball counts 1 point; Pocketing the 2 ball counts 2 points; Carrom from ball and upsetting bottle counts 5 points. The game consists of 31 points. The player having the least number of points at the finish of the game shall be adjudged the loser. Any number of persons can play, and the rotation of the players is decided as in ordinary pool. Player No. 1 must play with the white ball from any point within the string at the head of the table, at either the 1 or 2 ball at his option.
_=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ The chief object in Cayenne, either with a trump or in a grand, is to take tricks; in a nullo it is not to take them. In any case the highest card played of the suit led wins the trick, and trumps, if any, win against all other suits. At the end of each hand the side that wins any tricks in excess of the book scores them, after multiplying their number by the unit of value settled upon by the announcement. If a nullo is played the adversaries score them. Honours are then claimed; but the game cannot be won by honours alone, as at Whist; those holding honours must stop at the score of 9, unless they also win the odd trick. As soon as either side reaches or passes 10 points, they win a game; but the hand must be played out, and all tricks taken must be counted. If one side goes out by cards, the other cannot score honours. Thirteen tricks taken by one side is called a _=slam=_, and it counts 6 points. Twelve tricks is a _=little slam=_, and it counts 4.
Beginning with the eldest hand, each player in turn pays into the pool a counter for each card he draws. These cards are given by the dealer face up, and one player must be given all he needs before passing to the next. Should a player pass thirty-one, he is out of the pool. Some judgment is necessary in drawing in this manner, for all the hands are exposed, and each player knows exactly what he has to beat. In _=American Brag=_, there are eight braggers; the Jacks and nines of each suit, and they are all of equal rank when used as braggers. Pairs or triplets formed with the aid of braggers outrank naturals, so that three Jacks is an invincible hand, beating three aces. Two braggers and an ace outrank two aces and a bragger; but the absurd part of the arrangement is that three Jacks and three nines are a tie. The method of playing differs from English Brag. If the players simply equal the dealer’s ante, nothing unusual occurs, and all the hands are shown at once. But if any player raises, and another sees this raise, these two immediately exchange hands, without showing them to the other players, and the one who held the worse hand retires from that pool, returning the better hand to its original holder, who then awaits a call or raise from the next player in order, the entire amount staked still remaining in the pool.
If he has just been asked for a Ten, for instance, and has a Ten, but not of the suit asked for, he might turn upon his questioner and get a Ten from him, if he could guess the right suit. As soon as any player gets together four cards of the same denomination, he lays them face down upon the table in front of him, and they form a trick. A good memory is necessary to play this game well, as it is very important to recall who has asked for certain cards, and which players were unable to supply them. It is a legitimate artifice in the game to ask for a card you already have in your own hand, although you know it will lose your guess, because it may be the only way to prevent another player from drawing several valuable cards from you. For instance: You hold the Fives of diamonds and spades, and have asked for and received the Five of clubs. If you ask for the heart Five, and miss it, the player with that card may draw all yours; but if you ask for the spade Five, and he gets into the ask, he will at once betray the fact that he holds the fourth Five by asking you for the club Five; but he will never think of asking you for the spade Five, because you asked for it yourself. If you can get into the ask again you can immediately make a trick in Fives. SPECULATION. Any number of persons less than ten can play, each contributing an agreed number of counters to the pool, the dealer paying double. The full pack of fifty-two cards is used, and the cards rank from the A K Q down to the 2.
Dict._) suggests that the proper name for the bat was cricket-staff, A.-S. _criec_, a staff. See Bittle-battle, Stool-ball. Crooky An old game called Crooky was formerly played at Portarlington, Queen s co., and Kilkee, co. Clare. Fifty years ago it was played with wooden crooks and balls, but about twenty-five years ago, or a little more, mallets were introduced at Kilkee; while subsequently the name was changed to Croquet. I have heard it stated that this game was introduced by the French refugees that settled at Portarlington.
We ll follow our mother to market, To buy herself a basket; When she comes home she ll break our bones, We ll follow our mother to market. --Hersham, Surrey (_Folk-lore Record_, v. 84). A version familiar to me is the same as above, but ending with For tumbling over cherry stones. The mother then chased and beat those children she caught. The idea was, I believe, that the children were imitating or mocking their mother (A. B. G.). In Warwickshire the four lines of the Surrey game are concluded by the additional lines-- We don t care whether we work or no, We ll follow our mother on tipty-toe.
It is played by two persons with the forty-eight card pack, and the melds are reduced to the following values:-- King and Queen of a plain suit 20 Double marriage in the same suit 40 King and Queen of trumps 40 Double marriage in trumps 80 Any five Nines 101 Two single marriages in the same suit cannot be melded at different times. Game is 101 points. FOUR-HANDED BINOCLE. Four persons may play, each for himself, or two against two as partners, sitting opposite each other. All the cards are dealt, twelve to each player, four at a time, and the last is turned up for the trump. _=Melds=_ are not made until the player holding them has played to the first trick. The eldest hand leads and then melds; the second player plays and then melds, and so on. The card played to the first trick may still be reckoned in the melds. _=Playing.=_ The general rules of play are the same as in the three-handed game; players being obliged to follow suit and to win the trick if able to do so.