The object is to prevent the Cat from getting into the hole. Every time that it enters the hole, he who has the club at that hole loses the club, and he who threw the Cat gets possession both of the club and of the hole, while the former possessor is obliged to take charge of the Cat. If the Cat be struck, he who strikes it changes places with the person who holds the other club; and as often as these positions are changed one is counted in the game by the two who hold the clubs, and who are viewed as partners.--Jamieson. (_b_) This is not unlike the Stool-Ball described by Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 76), but it more nearly resembles Club-Ball, an ancient English game (ibid., p. 83). The game of Cat, played with sticks and a small piece of wood, rising in the middle, so as to rebound when struck on either side, is alluded to in _Poor Robin s Almanack_ for 1709, and by Brand. Leigh (_Cheshire Glossary_) gives Scute as another name for the game of Cat, probably from _scute_ (O.
Three crosses are chalked on the table in front of each player, representing five points each. When a trick is won, a beer-soaked finger wipes out the centre of a cross, and reduces its value to four. Successive cancellings of the remaining arms of the cross as tricks are taken gradually reduce it to nothing, and the player who is last to wipe out his third cross pays for the beer. No player is allowed to look at his cards until the trump is turned, and the dealer gives the word of command: “Auf.” The seven of diamonds is always the second-best card of the trump suit, ranking next below the ace. If it is turned up, the dealer turns up the next card for a trump, and when it comes to his turn, he can take both cards into his hand, discarding others in their place. If the dealer passes, the eldest hand may take up the trump. If only two declare to play, a trump must be led for the first trick; if three play, trumps must be led twice; if four play, three times. If the leader has no trump, he must lead his smallest card, face downward, which calls for a trump from such of the other players as have one. All penalties are made by adding fresh crosses to the delinquent’s score.
The peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of Poker we find well described by Seymour, in his chapter on “Brag,” in the “Court Gamester,” 1719: “The endeavour to impose on the judgment of the rest who play, and particularly on the person who chiefly offers to oppose you, by boasting or bragging of the cards in your hand. Those who by fashioning their looks and gestures, can give a proper air to their actions, as will so deceive an unskilful antagonist, that sometimes a pair of fives, trays or deuces, in such a hand, with the advantage of his composed countenance, and subtle manner of over-awing the other, shall out-brag a much greater hand, and win the stakes, with great applause and laughter on his side from the whole company.” Quite a number of card games retain the feature of pairs, triplets, sequences, and flushes, but omit the element of brag or bluff, and can therefore hardly be considered full-blooded members of the poker family. Whiskey Poker, for instance, has really little or nothing in common with the true spirit of poker, and is simply the very ancient game of Commerce, played with five cards instead of three. The descriptions of this game in the earliest Hoyles betray its French origin; particularly in the use of the piquet pack; the French custom of cutting to the left and dealing to the right; and the use of the words “brelan,” and “tricon.” In later descriptions of the “new form” of Commerce, about 1835, we find 52 cards are used, and dealt from left to right, and the names of the combinations are changed to “pairs-royal,” “sequences,” and “flushes.” There appears to be little or nothing modern in the game of Poker but the increased number of cards dealt to each player, which makes it possible for one to hold double combinations, such as two pairs, triplets with a pair, etc. The old games were all played with three cards only, and the “brelan-carré,” or four of a kind, could be made only by combining the three cards held by the player with the card which was sometimes turned up on the talon, or remainder of the pack. The blind, the straddle, the raise, the bluff, table stakes, and freeze-out, are all to be found in Bouillotte, which flourished in the time of the French Revolution, and the “draw” from the remainder of the pack existed in the old French game of Ambigu. The first mention we have of poker in print is in Green’s Reformed Gambler, which contains a description of a game of poker played on a river steamer in June, 1834.
At the conclusion, the children who are marching on the inner side of the circle leave their partners and take the place of one in front of them, while the centre child endeavours to get one of the vacant places, the child turned out taking the place of the one in the centre, when the game begins again. In the Earls Heaton version there is the circle of children, with one child in the centre, who chooses a partner after the lines have been sung. (_c_) From this it would seem that while the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire words appear to be the most complete, the action has been preserved best at Sharleston. The acting of this version is the same as that of The Jolly Miller. The third variant is evidently an imitation of the song, John Brown. Green Grow the Leaves (2) [Music] --Northants (R. S. Baker). Green grow the leaves on the hawthorn tree, Green grow the leaves on the hawthorn tree, We jangle and we wrangle and we never can agree, But the tenor of our song goes merrily, merrily, merrily, The tenor of our song goes merrily. --R.
Most of these maverick TK s strong-arm the dice, and they skid across the layout with their spots up. You re way ahead of that--you don t touch them till the final few tumbles. And then, you were losing, and I couldn t see that the table was being hit. I thought it was the smart move. I explained. I was still controlling the dice, and if there d been a cross-roader working, I should have felt him skidding them. Smythe nodded. Of course, he added. I could feel you more clearly after you got the dice, and later, while that scarecrow with you was handling your chips. You were building a stack.
_=The Last Nine Tricks.=_ When the stock is exhausted, all announcements are at an end, and the players take back into their hands all the cards upon the table which may remain from the combinations declared in the course of play. The winner of the previous trick then leads any card he pleases, but for the last nine tricks the second player in each must not only follow suit, but must win the trick if he can, either with a superior card or with a trump. Any player failing to follow suit or to win a trick, when able to do so, may be compelled to take back his cards to the point where the error occurred, and to replay the hand from that point. In France he is penalised by counting nothing from that point on, either for brisques or for the last trick. The winner of the _=last trick=_ scores fifty points for it immediately. _=SCORING.=_ Each deal is a complete game in itself, and the winner is the player who has scored the most points for carte blanche, combinations, and the last trick. The brisques are not counted, unless they are necessary to decide a tie, or save a rubicon. The value of the game is determined by deducting the lesser score from the higher, and then adding 500 points to the remainder.
Long Suits, those containing four or more cards, at Whist. Lose Out, a card that loses four times in one deal, at Faro. Losing Cards, those that would lose tricks if they were led. Losing _Hazard_, pocketing the cue ball. Losing Trump, one which is not the best, when only one or two remain. Love-all, nothing scored on either side. Lurched, not half way toward game. Main, F., with avoir this expression is indefinite, and may refer to the deal or the lead. With être, to be in the lead.
Will I get there by candle-light? If your horse be good and your spurs be bright. How mony men have ye? Mae nae ye daur come and see. --Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, p. 124; Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. II. How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. Will we be there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. Open your gates and let us go through. Not without a beck and a boo. There s a beck, and there s a boo, Open your gates and let us go through.
| |15.| -- |The bush is too high, | -- | | | |the bush is too low. | | |16.| -- |Please, old woman, | -- | | | |creep under the bush. | | |17.| -- | -- | -- | |18.| -- | -- | -- | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Norfolk (1). | Norfolk (2). | Haydon.
The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick. There is no trump suit. If a player has none of the suit led, he may discard anything he pleases. The winner of the trick takes it in and leads for the next trick, and so on until all the cards have been played. The tricks themselves have no value as such, and need not be kept separate. _=Irregularities in Play.=_ If any player omits to play to a trick, and plays to a following one, he is not allowed to correct his error, but is compelled to take the thirteenth or last trick, with whatever hearts it may contain. If a player is found, during or at the end of a hand, to be a card short, all others at the table having their right number, and all having played to the first trick, the player with the short hand is compelled to take the last trick, with whatever hearts it may contain. _=Exposed Cards.=_ Should a person lead or play two cards to one trick, he is allowed to indicate the one intended; but he must leave the other face upward on the table.
If Dummy passes, you make two tricks; if he covers, you have tenace over the Jack. With A 10 9 x; Dummy having J x x x; play the 10. If partner has the K, your A 9 is tenace over the Q. With A J 10 x; Dummy having Q x x x; if the suit must be led, play the Jack; but such positions should be avoided, except in the end game, or when you play for every trick. With A J 10 x; Dummy having no honour in the suit; if you must lead the suit, play the 10. In trumps, with K Q x x; Dummy having A J x x; play the Queen. If Dummy wins with A, play a small card for the second round, and he may refuse to put on the J. The declarer not having the 10, would make Dummy cover; but nothing is lost if he does, and it marks the 10 with your partner. With King and others of a suit in which Dummy has not the Ace; avoid leading the suit until the Ace has fallen. With King alone, play it if Dummy has the Ace; keep it if he has not.
If no bet is made, the last player holding cards takes the pool without showing his hand. If a bet is made, the game proceeds as in the ordinary pools. Should the opener retire during the betting, he must show his openers; if he is in the final call he must show his entire hand, whether it is the best or not. If he or any other player declines to show his hand when a call is made, he must ante for all the other players for another jack. _=46. Shy Bets.=_ If any player is shy in a jack pot, whether from failure to put up his ante, to fatten, or to substantiate his mouth bets with counters, nothing can be collected from him after a call has been made, or the pot has been won. STRAIGHT POKER. Straight Poker or _=Bluff=_ is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, and any number of players from one to eight. The arrangements for counters, seats, and deal are exactly the same as in Draw Poker, but the method of anteing and betting up the hands is slightly different.
_=44. False Hands.=_ If a false opener does not discover his mistake until after he has drawn cards, his hand is foul, and must be abandoned. As a penalty he must put up an ante for each of the other players at the table for another Jack. _=45. Betting the Hands.=_ The opener makes the first bet; or, if he has withdrawn, the player next on his left. Should the opener decline to bet after the draw, he must show his openers before abandoning his hand. He need not show the cards he has drawn. If no bet is made, the last player holding cards takes the pool without showing his hand.
It is sometimes agreed that one player shall take dummy continuously, on condition that he concedes to his adversaries one point in each rubber. When this is done, the largest rubber that the dummy’s partner can win is one of seven; and he may win nothing; whereas his adversaries may win a rubber of nine, and must win at least two. This concession of a point is not made, as many imagine, because it is an advantage to have the (dummy) partner’s hand exposed; but because it is an advantage to have the player’s hand concealed. He knows the collective contents of the adversaries’ hands; each of them knows only the contents of dummy’s hand and his own. _=Cutting.=_ The player cutting the lowest card has the choice of seats and cards; but he must deal the first hand for his dummy; not for himself. The methods of spreading, cutting, deciding ties, etc., described in connection with whist, are those employed in dummy. _=Position of the Players.=_ The players are distinguished, as at whist, by the two first and last letters of the alphabet, and their positions at the table are indicated in the same manner.
We decided that every man should be as brave and skilful as every other man, and that when two men of opposite sides came into contact they would inevitably kill each other. This restored strategy to its predominance over chance. We then began to humanise that wild and fearful fowl, the gun. We decided that a gun could not be fired if there were not six--afterwards we reduced the number to four--men within six inches of it. And we ruled that a gun could not both fire and move in the same general move: it could either be fired or moved (or left alone). If there were less than six men within six inches of a gun, then we tried letting it fire as many shots as there were men, and we permitted a single man to move a gun, and move with it as far as he could go by the rules--a foot, that is, if he was an infantry-man, and two feet if he was a cavalry-man. We abolished altogether that magical freedom of an unassisted gun to move two feet. And on such rules as these we fought a number of battles. They were interesting, but not entirely satisfactory. We took no prisoners--a feature at once barbaric and unconvincing.
The truckle bed and footman s bed probably refers to the small bed under a large one, which was only pulled out at night for use, and pushed under during the day. Illustrations of these beds and the children s bed are given in old tales. The proximity of the pig-sty to the house is manifest. The mention of washing-tubs calls to mind the large wooden tubs formerly always used for the family wash. Before the era of laundresses washing-tubs must have constituted an important part of the family plenishing. Washing in the rivers and streams was also a thing of frequent occurrence, hot water for the purpose of cleansing clothes not being considered necessary, or in many cases desirable. Chambers gives a version of the game (_Popular Rhymes_, p. 36) and also Newell (_Games_, p. 166). Another version from Buckingham is given by Thomas Baker in the _Midland Garner_, 1st ser.
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Gomme). Chacke-Blyndman Scotch name for Blindman s Buff. --Jamieson. Chance Bone In Langley s abridgment of _Polydore Vergile_, f. 1., we have a description of this game: There is a game also that is played with the posterne bone in the hinder foote of a sheepe, oxe, gote, fallow, or redde dere, whiche in Latin is called _talus_. It hath foure chaunces: the ace point, that is named Canis, or Canicula, was one of the sides; he that cast it leyed doune a peny, or so muche as the gamers were agreed on; the other side was called Venus, that signifieth seven. He that cast the chaunce wan sixe and all that was layd doune for the castyng of Canis. The two other sides were called Chius and Senio. He that did throwe Chius wan three.
--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 59). In Nairn, Scotland, the game is called Post and Rider. One boy, the Post, takes his stand beside a wall. Another boy stoops down with his head touching the Post s breast. Several other boys stoop down in the same way behind the first boy, all in line. The Rider then leaps on the back of the boy at the end of the row of stooping boys, and from his back to that of the one in front, and so on from back to back till he reaches the boy next the Post. He then holds up so many fingers, and says-- Buck, buck, how many fingers do I hold up? The boy makes a guess. If the number guessed is wrong, the Rider gives the number guessed as well as the correct number, and again holds up so many, saying-- [Four] you say, but [two] it is; Buck, buck, how many fingers do I hold up? This goes on till the correct number is guessed, when the guesser becomes the Rider. The game was called Buck, Buck at Keith.
Foot for foot, and knee for knee, Turn about Darby s company. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 121. (_b_) The children form pairs, one pair following the other, with their arms linked behind. While the first four lines are repeated by all, they skip forward, and then skip back again. At the end of the last line they turn themselves about without loosing hands. (_c_) Miss Burne includes this among obscure and archaic games, and Halliwell-Phillips mentions it as a marching game. The three first versions have something of the nature of an incantation, while the fourth and fifth versions may probably belong to another game altogether. It is not clear from the great variation in the verses to which class the game belongs. Almonds and Reasons An old English game undescribed.
No matter how good a player one may be, good luck alone will bring success. In a four-handed game it is possible for one player to take in only 58 hearts in 60 deals, and still to be 46 counters behind; while another player may take in 500 hearts in 60 deals and be 46 counters ahead. It may be claimed that the player who has 46 counters ahead at the end was the better player, because he won; but most persons will agree that a player who takes in only 58 hearts in 60 deals is a much better player than one who has taken in 500 hearts in the same time. It was to remedy this defect, and to give skill its proper percentage of value, that Mr. E. C. Howell of Boston proposed the manner of contributing to and dividing the pools which is now known as Howell’s Settling. Each player begins with an equal number of counters, usually 100. At the end of the hand, after the hearts have been counted and announced, each player pays into the pool, for every heart he holds, as many counters as there are players besides himself. For instance: A, B, C and D play.
If, during the play of the hand, any player is found to have a wrong number of cards, the others having their right number, only those who have their right number can win the game. If it is the player who has a wrong number, his game is lost. If it is one of his adversaries, the player’s game is won. 47. If the single player leads out of turn, the cards must be taken back if the trick is not complete and the adversary who has not played demands it. If both adversaries have played to the false lead, the trick stands. If an adversary has played to his false lead, the player cannot take it back unless the other adversary permit it. 48. If an adversary of the player leads out of turn, and the player calls attention to it, the player may immediately claim his game as won and abandon the hand; or he may insist that the play proceed with a view to making the adversaries schneider or schwarz. Whether he proceeds or not his game is won, and he may either let the false lead stand, or insist on a lead from the proper hand.
LIFT SMOKE. The number of players must be limited to six, each of whom deposits a counter in the pool. A full pack of fifty-two cards is used. The cards rank from the ace down to the deuce, as at Whist. If there are four players, six cards are dealt to each, one at a time; if five play, five cards to each, and if six play, four cards to each. The last card that falls to the dealer is turned up for the trump, and the remainder of the pack is placed in the centre of the table as a stock to draw from. The eldest hand leads for the first trick, and the others must follow suit if they can. The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. The winner of each trick draws the top card from the talon, and leads again. When any player’s cards are exhausted he withdraws from the game, and the others continue.
=_ Two, three or four persons can play Chinese Whist. When three play, the spade deuce is thrown out of the pack. Partners and deal are cut for from an outspread pack, as at Whist. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ When four play, the partners sit opposite each other. When three play, the one cutting the lowest card chooses his seat, and dictates the positions of the two other players. _=DEALING.=_ When four play, the pack is shuffled and cut as at Whist. The dealer then gives six cards to each player, one at a time, beginning on his left. These six cards are then spread face down on the table in front of the players to whom they have been dealt, but without being looked at.
Rise up, rise up, Betsy Brown, To see your father go through the town. I won t rise up upon my feet, To see my father go through the street. Rise up, rise up, Betsy Brown, To see your mother go through the town. I won t rise up upon my feet, To see my mother go through the street. [Then follow verses for sister, brother, and lover. When this last is sung, she says--] I will rise up upon my feet, To see my lover go through the street. --Ninfield, Sussex, about sixty years ago (Charles Wise). III. Rise daughter, rise daughter, off of your poor feet, To see your dear mother lie dead at your feet. I won t rise, I won t rise off of my poor feet, To see my dear mother lie dead at my feet.
Hyde thinks the morris, or merrils, was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into _three men s morals_, or _nine men s morals_. If this be true, the conversion of _morrals_ into _morris_, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The Doctor adds, that it was likewise called _nine-penny_ or _nine-pin miracle_, _three-penny morris_, _five-penny morris_, _nine-penny morris_, or _three-pin_, _five-pin_, and _nine-pin morris_, all corruptions of _three-pin, &c, merels_ (Hyde s _Hist. Nederluddi_, p. 202). Nares says the simpler plan here represented (fig. 2), which he had also seen cut on small boards, is more like the game than the one referred to in the variorem notes of Shakespeare. [Illustration: Fig. 2.] Forby has, _Morris_, an ancient game, in very common modern use.
How mony men have ye? Mae nae ye daur come and see. --Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, p. 124; Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. II. How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. Will we be there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. Open your gates and let us go through. Not without a beck and a boo. There s a beck, and there s a boo, Open your gates and let us go through. --Nairn, Scotland (Rev.