17. The tune of the Platt version sent by Miss Burne, and the Ogbourne and Manton (H. S. May), are almost identical, except the termination. This seems to be the most general tune for the game. The Lancashire tune is the same as the London version. Miss Burne says of the Madeley version: I never knew Green Gravel and Wallflowers played together as in this way elsewhere (I had not got this variant when I wrote _Shropshire Folk-lore_), except at Much Wenlock, where they reverse the two verses, and only sing _one line_ (the last) of Green Gravel. But I feel sure they must have been _meant_ to go together (see my note in _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 510), and I can explain them, I think. The ring of girls are dancing on the green grass plot in the middle of an old-fashioned sixteenth-century walled garden: each gets the news of her lover s death, and turns her face to the wall, the old token of hopeless sorrow.
The players on the right and left of the dealer are known as the pone and the eldest hand respectively. _=Cutting.=_ The players cut for seats and deal, the lowest card having the first choice and dealing the first hand. A player exposing more than one card must cut again. _=Stakes.=_ The game is played for so much a point. The largest winning or loss for the single player is 140, but such an amount is almost impossible, and the average payments are 10 or 20. _=Dealing.=_ The cards are presented to the pone to be cut, and at least four must be left in each packet. The dealer then distributes them to the players four at a time, until each has twelve, four remaining in the stock or talon, which is left upon the table face down.
authority for this). This identification of the game-rhyme would suggest that the game originally was a child s dramatic imitation of an old burial ceremony, and it remains to be seen whether the signification of the words would carry out this idea. In the first place, the idea of death is a prominent incident in the game, appearing in seven out of the fourteen versions. In all these cases the death is followed by the clapping of hands and bell-ringing, and in five cases by the singing of birds. Clapping of hands occurs in two other cases, and bell-ringing in one other case, not accompanied by the death incident. Now it is singular that the burial-rite which has just been quoted is called Dish-a-loof; and a reference to the game of Dish-a-loof [under that title], will show that it derives its name from the clapping of hands. In the ceremony, as described by Henderson, although songs and games are part of the burial-ceremony, there is no specific mention of hand-clapping; but it is conceivable that the action at one time formed part of the ceremony, and hence the name Dish-a-loof. This would not account for the promise of a duck, drake, &c., as in incidents Nos. 12 and 20; nor for the promise of a young prince or young man; but these incidents might very well be variants of some earlier forms which are not now discoverable, especially as love-games were played at funerals, and as the tendency, in the less complete forms of the game as they have come down to us, is in the direction of transposing the game into a complete love-game.
_=IN GENERAL.=_ Both the adversaries of Dummy should adopt the usual tactics for unblocking, etc., especially in no-trumpers, and in some cases Dummy’s exposed cards will make the matter more simple. For instance: You hold A Q alone, of a suit which partner leads. If you are the pone, and Dummy has not the King, play Ace and return the Queen. _=FOURTH HAND.=_ There is only one difference from the usual methods in playing fourth hand, and that is in indicating sequences by winning with the best and returning the lowest to show the intermediate cards. For instance: Fourth player, holding K Q J x, wins with King and returns the Jack. Or with A K Q, wins with Ace and returns the Queen. The reason for this is that the declarer gains nothing by the information, for he knows from the first what cards are out against him; but the information may be valuable to your partner, the second hand.