_=Cards and Players.=_ When Polignac is played by four persons, a Piquet pack is used, and eight cards are dealt to each player, 3-2-3 at a time. When five play, the two black Sevens are deleted, and six cards are given to each player. When six play, each receives five cards. When seven play, the dealer takes no cards. In France, the cards usually rank as in Écarté; K Q J A 10 9 8 7; but in England and America it is more usual to preserve the order in Piquet, A K Q J 10 9 8 7. There is no trump suit. All the preliminaries are settled as at Hearts or Slobberhannes. _=Counters.=_ Each player is provided with ten or twenty counters, as may be agreed upon, and the player first losing his counters loses the game, and pays to each of the others any stake that may have been previously agreed upon, usually a counter for each point they have still to go when he is decavé.
Any sequence of five, containing K Q J, 250 Any sequence of four, containing K Q J, 40 Any sequence of K Q J, 30 King and Queen of any suit, 20 Queen and Jack of any suit, 20 Any flush of five cards, containing K Q J, 50 CLASS C. PENCHANTS. Any Queen and Jack of different suits, 10 The sequences and flushes in class B must all be of the same suit; penchant cards must be of different suits. If the winner of any trick has no declaration to make, he signifies it by drawing the top card from the stock. His adversary, before drawing his card from the stock, may then declare a penchant, if he has one; but no other combination can be declared by the player who does not win the trick. If the winner of the trick makes any declaration, the loser cannot declare. The Jack of the first penchant declared makes the _=trump suit=_ for that deal, no matter which player announces it. Trumps do not increase the value of any combination, and are only useful to win plain-suit tricks. All declarations are scored immediately, either on a marker or with counters. It will be observed that with the exception of sequences of five cards, fours, and penchants, the count is ten points for each card in the combination.
The game is mentioned by a writer in _Blackwood s Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, as being played in Edinburgh when he was a boy. Hood A game played at Haxey, in the Isle of Axholme, on the 6th of January. The Hood is a piece of sacking, rolled tightly up and well corded, and which weighs about six pounds. This is taken into an open field on the north side of the church, to be contended for by the youths assembled for that purpose. When the Hood is about to be thrown up, the Plough-bullocks or Boggins, as they are called, dressed in scarlet jackets, are placed amongst the crowd at certain distances. Their persons are sacred, and if amidst the general row the Hood falls into the hands of one of them, the sport begins again. The object of the person who seizes the Hood is to carry off the prize to some public-house in the town, where he is rewarded with such liquor as he chooses to call for. This pastime is said to have been instituted by the Mowbrays, and that the person who furnished the Hood did so as a tenure by which he held some land under the lord. How far this tradition may be founded on fact I do not know, but no person now acknowledges to hold any land by that tenure.
(_b_) In Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_ this is called Cat-gallas, and is described as three sticks placed in the form of a gallows for boys to jump over. So called in consequence of being of sufficient height to hang cats from. Also mentioned in Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_ and Elworthy s _West Somerset Words_, Brogden s _Provincial Words, Lincs._, Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_, Atkinson s _Cleveland Glossary_, Brockett s _North Country Words_, Evans _Leicestershire Glossary_, Baker s _Northants Glossary_, and Darlington s _South Cheshire Glossary_. On one of the stalls in Worcester Cathedral, figured in Wright s _Archæological Essays_, ii. 117, is a carving which represents three rats busily engaged in hanging a cat on a gallows of this kind. Cat i the Hole A game well known in Fife, and perhaps in other counties. If seven boys are to play, six holes are made at certain distances. Each of the six stands at a hole, with a short stick in his hand; the seventh stands at a certain distance holding a ball. When he gives the word, or makes the sign agreed upon, all the six change holes, each running to his neighbour s hole, and putting his stick in the hole which he has newly seized.
=_ The remarks made on this subject in connection with whist apply equally to dummy. Dummy’s partner must pay to, or receive from each adversary the amount agreed. _=Method of Playing.=_ The general method of playing is identical with that of whist, with the following exceptions:-- When it is dummy’s turn to play, his partner selects the card. _=The Revoke.=_ For this dummy is not liable to any penalty, as his adversaries can see his cards. Even should the revoke be occasioned by dummy’s cards being disarranged, or one of them covered up, the adversaries should be as able to detect the error as the partner. Should dummy’s hand revoke, it cannot be remedied after the trick in which it occurs has been turned and quitted; and the game must proceed as if no revoke had occurred. All the penalties for a revoke may be enforced against dummy’s partner, should he renounce in error, and not correct it in time. There being no American laws for dummy, the English penalty of three tricks or three points may be enforced, and the revoking player cannot win the game that hand.
Only one discard is allowed, and having been made it cannot be changed after the stock has been touched. If the pone does not take all the cards to which he is entitled, he is allowed to look at those that remain of the first five that were on the talon; but on no account may he look at any of the dealer’s three. If the dealer leaves any cards in the stock, he has a right to look at them, but the pone may not see them until he has led for the first trick, or announced the suit he will lead. If he announces a suit, and after seeing the cards in the stock does not lead that suit, the dealer may call a suit. If the dealer does not look at the remaining cards the pone cannot see them either. Each player keeps his discards separate from those of his adversary, and is allowed to refer to them at any time during the play of the hand, but on no account can he see his adversary’s discards, unless that adversary has mixed with them one or more of the unseen cards that were left in the stock, and afterward picks up and looks at his discard, including the card which the other is entitled to see. For instance: The dealer leaves a card without looking at it. This he afterward mixes with his discard. Now, if he looks at his discard, of course he sees the card left in the stock, and the pone may demand to see not only the card left, but the entire discard. The same rule applies to the pone if he takes into his discards an unseen card of the stock.
Curly locks, curly locks, Wilt thou be mine? Thou shalt not wash dishes Nor yet feed the swine; But sit on a fine cushion And sew a fine seam, And feed upon strawberries, Sugar and cream. --Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy). II. Bonny lass, canny lass, Wilta be mine? Thou s nowder wesh dishes Nor sarra the swine: But sit on thy crippy, &c. --Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. (_b_) Two children, a girl and a boy, separate from their fellows, who are not particularly placed, the boy caressing the girl s curls and singing the verses. (_c_) This game is evidently a dramatic representation of wooing, and probably the action of the game has never been quite completed in the nursery. The verses are given as nursery rhymes by Halliwell, Nos. cccclxxxiii. and ccccxciv.
He is entitled to count all the points contained in the cards taken in or won in this manner. These conditions are: that he can match or _=pair=_ a card or cards on the table; that he can _=combine=_ two or more cards on the table so as to make their total pip value equal to that of the card he plays; or that he can _=build=_ a card in his hand upon one on the table, so as to make their total pip value agree with that of a second card, still in his hand. _=Pairing.=_ If the person whose turn it is to play, holds in his hand any card of a similar denomination to any of those on the table, he may play the card from his hand, face upward, and then gather it in again, together with all similar cards, turning them face downward in front of him. For instance: He holds an Eight, and there are one or two Eights on the table. He plays the Eight from his hand, and then gathers in all of them. _=Combining.=_ If a player holds any card, not a K Q or J, the pip value of which is equal to that of two or more cards on the table, he may play the card from his hand, and then gather it in again, together with the two or three cards that collectively equal it in pip value. For instance: He holds a 9, and a 4, 3 and 2 are upon the table. He may combine these three cards, calling attention to the fact that their collective value is 9, and then play the 9 from his own hand, gathering in and turning down all four cards.
With the system of scoring here recommended, this sweating out is impossible, and it is not uncommon for a side that wants one to go, to be beaten by an adversary that wants forty-nine. The side first pegging out on a cribbage-board, or getting rid of its fifty-one counters, wins the game. When the game is counted on a pull-up cribbage marker, it is usual to start with ten up, and peg out to the game-hole, or 61. _=VARIATIONS.=_ There are quite a number of minor differences in the manner of playing Cinch. Sometimes, instead of discarding and drawing, after the successful bidder has been ascertained, but before he names the trump, four more cards are given to each player, including the dealer. Having seen thirteen cards, the bidder names the trump suit, and the hands are then reduced to six cards each. This method gives no clue to the number of trumps originally held, and deprives the dealer of one of the greatest advantages of his position, robbing the deck. Another method is to discard and draw after the trump is named, but to make the dealer take his cards from the top of the pack to complete his hand, without seeing what he is to get. This often leaves counting cards in the remainder of the pack, which must remain face down, and be kept separate from the discards.
A. Keary). (_b_) This game requires an uneven number of players. All the children except one stand in couples arm in arm, each couple closely following the other. This forms a double ring or wheel (fig. 1). The odd child stands in the centre. The children forming the wheel walk round in a circle and sing the verse. When they come to the word grab, those children standing on the _inside_ of the wheel leave hold of their partners arms, and try to catch hold of the one standing immediately in front of their previous partners. The child in the centre (or Miller) tries (while they are changing places) to secure a partner and place (fig.
=_ Black to play and win. White to play and draw. WHITE. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛁ | | ⛁ | | ⛀ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛃ | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | ⛃ | | ⛃ | | ⛂ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ BLACK. ] The first position is one of the most common endings on the checker board, and should be very thoroughly understood. The letters in the margin refer to the variations. There are a great many minor variations, for which the student must be referred to Janvier’s Anderson, page 265. _=First Position.=_ 27-32 8 11 32-27 11 7 27-23 7 10 22-26 A 10 6 26-31 6 9 31-26 9 6 26-22 6 10 23-18 10 6 18-14 6 1 22-18 1 6 18-15 6 1 15-10 1 5 10- 6 5 1 14-13 1 5 6- 1 5 9 1- 5 9 13 10-14 13 9 14-18 9 6 18-15 30 25 15-18 6 10 5- 1 25 21 1- 5 10 6 18-15 21 17 5- 1 6 9 15-18 17 13 18-15 9 14 1- 5 14 17 15-10 17 22 10-14 22 25 5- 1 25 22 1- 6 22 25 6-10 25 22 10-15 22 25 15-18 25 21 B wins ------ Var A. 30 25 23-18 10 6 18-14 6 1 26-30 25 21 30-25 1 5 25-22 5 1 22-18 1 5 18-15 5 1 15-10 1 5 10- 6 5 1 14-10 1 5 6- 1 5 9 10-15 B 9 5 15-18 5 9 1- 5 9 6 18-15 21 17 5- 1 6 9 15-18 9 5 18-22 17 14 1- 6 5 1 6- 2 1 5 22-17 14 9 B wins ------ Var B.
--Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire (Miss Peacock). II. Green grow the leaves on the old oak tree, I love the boys and the boys love me, As we go marching on. --Sharleston (Miss Fowler). III. I love the boys and the boys love me, I love the boys and the boys love me, I love the boys and the boys love me, As we go marching home. Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! As we go marching home. The old whiskey bottle lies empty on the shelf, The old whiskey bottle lies empty on the shelf, The old whiskey bottle lies empty on the shelf, As we go marching home. --Earls Heaton, Yorkshire (Herbert). (_b_) In Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire the game is played by the children forming a circle and dancing round, singing.
Even if you have four of the suit, you run only a 2 to 1 risk in winning the second round instead of the first, as against a certainty that you will be out of the pool at once if the dangerous player gets the lead. For an example of this, see B’s play in Illustrative Hand No. 2. Where you have a certain safe card, and others of another suit not absolutely safe, it is better to keep the safe card, in order to be sure of getting rid of the lead if you are put in on your dangerous suit. In following suit, the most annoying hand that one can hold is one containing at least three cards of each suit, none of them below a 6. There is no hope of a discard, unless two players make a fight in some one suit, which they lead four or five times in order to load each other, regardless of the escape of the other players. This very seldom occurs, and never among good players. With such a hand escape is almost impossible, and it is usually best to make the losses as small as possible. Many good players, with such a hand, will deliberately take in hearts on the plain suits, hoping to escape with only one or two in each trick, instead of having to carry the whole load by getting into the lead at the end. It should never be forgotten that when you must inevitably take some hearts it is cheaper to take them in on plain suits than to win heart tricks.