In two versions even the sense of milking-can has been lost, and the South Shields version, sent me by little Miss Blair, has degenerated into male-scales, a thoroughly meaningless phrase. The Cowes version (Miss Smith) has arrived at wash-pan. The burden of the Chirbury version is a rea, a ria, a roses, and the Sheffield version is also remarkable: the I, O, OM refers, probably, to something now forgotten, or it may be the Hi, Ho, Ham! familiar in many nursery rhymes. The game seems to point to a period some time back, when milking was an important phase of the daily life, or perhaps to the time when it was customary for the maids and women of a village to go to the hilly districts with the cows (summer shealings) for a certain period of time. The references to domestic life are interesting. The scarcity of beds, the best or feather bed, and the children s bed, seeming to be all those available. The feather bed is still a valued piece of household furniture, and is considered somewhat of the nature of a heirloom, feather beds often descending from mother to daughter for some generations. I have been told instances of this. Gregor, in _Folk-lore of East of Scotland_, p. 52, describes the Scottish box-bed.
_=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ As in whist, the object is to take tricks; the highest card played of the suit led wins, and trumps win against all other suits. The first six tricks taken by one side, and forming a _=book=_, do not count; but all above that number count toward game. At the end of each hand, the side that has taken any tricks in excess of the book scores them, their opponents counting nothing. As soon as either side reaches five points, they win the game, but the concluding hand must be played out, and the winners are entitled to score all the points over five that they can make on that hand. For instance: The score is 4 to 3 in favor of Vivant and Mort. They win the first seven tricks, which makes them game; but they do not cease playing. If they succeed in gaining eleven tricks out of the thirteen, they win a game of 9 points, instead of 5. As already observed, Vivant loses or gains double the value of the points in each hand. In the three-handed game this must be so; but in my opinion it would be a great improvement in the four-handed game to allow the player sitting out to share the fortunes of the Vivant, as in Bridge, and in many German games of cards, notably Skat.
_=MARKING THE KING.=_ The discards settled, the first and most important thing before play begins is to mark the King. If the King is turned up, the dealer marks one point for it immediately. If the pone holds it, he must _=announce=_ and mark it before he plays a card. If he leads the King for the first trick, he must still announce it by saying distinctly: “I mark the King;” and unless this announcement is made before the King touches the table, it cannot be marked. So important is this rule that in some European Casinos it is found printed on the card tables. Having properly announced the King, it may be actually marked with the counters at any time before the trump is turned for the following game. If the dealer holds the King he must announce it before his adversary leads for the first trick. It is in order that there may be no surprises in this respect that the elder hand is required to say distinctly: “I play,” before he leads a card. The dealer must then reply: “I mark the King,” if he has it; if not, he should say: “Play.