-+---+ | . | | . | | . | | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | .
In all the following illustrations the black men move round the board from right to left, like the hands of a clock, while the white men go in the opposite direction; so that the two opposing forces are continually meeting and passing, like the people in the street. The _=Object of the Game=_ is for each player to move his men from point to point in order to get them all into his home table. It does not matter what part of the home table they reach, so that they get across the bar. The men are moved according to the throws of the dice, each player in turn having a throw and a move. After the men on either side are all home, they are taken off the board according to the throws of the dice, and the player who is the first to get all his men off the board in this manner wins the game. If each player has taken off some of his men, the player getting all his off first wins a _=hit=_, which counts as a single game. If one player gets off all his men before his adversary has thrown off a single man, it is a _=gammon=_, and counts as a double game. If the loser has not only taken off none of his men, but has one or more men left on the side of the board farther from him when his adversary throws off his last man, it is a _=backgammon=_, and counts as a triple game. In America, gammons and backgammons are seldom played, every game being simply a hit. This spoils some of the fine points of the game, and entirely alters the tactics of the players, as will be seen when we come to the suggestions for good play.
Then the privilege of naming the trump suit is bid for as usual. After the trump is named, superfluous cards are thrown out, and others drawn in their place, restoring the hands to six cards each. The successful bidder then calls upon the holder of any given card to be his partner. The person holding the card named cannot refuse, and says: “I play with you.” The partnership thus formed plays against the combined forces of the other players, but without changing seats. The maker of the trump leads first, any card he pleases. For instance: A B C D E are playing. C bids 8 and names clubs. After the draw he finds he holds A J 10 5 2 of trumps. He calls for the club King as his partner, and leads his Pedro at once for the King to take it in.
In the five-card game, in which there are only three cards in the hand and four in the crib, it is usual to sacrifice the hand very largely for the possibilities of the crib, because of the much larger scores that can be made with five cards, the starter and four in the crib. _=Baulking.=_ In both games it is the duty of the pone to baulk the dealer’s crib as much as possible, by laying out cards which are very unlikely to be worth anything, either in making fifteens or in filling up sequences. Pairs it is impossible to provide against, and the chance of making a flush is remote, but should be avoided if there is any choice. The best baulk is a King and Nine; tenth cards and Aces are also very good cards to lay out. Cards which are at least two pips apart, called _=wide cards=_, are better than _=close cards=_, as the latter may form sequences. Fives are very bad discards, and so are any cards that form a five or a fifteen. _=The Crib.=_ In laying out for his own crib, the dealer should preserve his own hand as much as possible; but other things being equal, the best cards to lay out are pairs, close cards, and cards that form fives, such as Fours and Aces. If these elements can be combined, so much the better.
The number of cards in hand will often be the best guide. In Rubicon, if you held trump sequence and double bézique, it would be better to declare the sequence first, and to lead the card you drew. One of the trump sequence on the table would then be free to regain the lead and declare the double bézique; but if the bézique was declared first, the sequence might have to be broken into to regain the lead. With a plain-suit sequence and four Aces, declare the Aces first. They will then be free to win tricks for the purpose of making other declarations. It is seldom right to show the bézique cards in other combinations, and four Jacks is a very bad meld, because it shows your adversary that he cannot hope for double bézique. By holding up bézique cards, even if you know they are of no use to you, you may lead your adversary to break up his hand, hoping to draw the card or cards you hold. _=Trumps.=_ Small trumps may be used to advantage in winning brisques, but you should keep at least one small trump to get the lead at critical periods of the hand, or to make an important declaration. It is bad policy to trump in to make minor declarations, unless your time is short.
The Witch tries to catch one, and if successful that child becomes Witch next time.--A. B. Gomme. A probable explanation of this game is that it illustrates some of the practices and customs connected with fire-worship and the worship of the hearth, and that the pot is a magical one, and would only boil over when something wrong had occurred and the Mother s presence was necessary. The pot boils over directly a child is taken away, and appears to cease doing this when the Mother comes in. It is remarkable, too, that the Witch should want to borrow a light from the fire; the objection to the giving of fire out of the house is a well-known and widely-diffused superstition, the possession of a brand from the house-fire giving power to the possessor over the inmates of a house. The mention of the spitting on the hearth in the Sheffield version, and dirtying the hearth in the London version, give confirmation to the theory that the desecration of the fire or hearth is the cause of the pot boiling over, and that the spirit of the hearth or fire is offended at the sacrilege. The Witch, too, may be unable to get possession of a child until she has something belonging to the house. The journey of the Mother to the Witch s house in search of her children, the obstacles put in her path, and the mention of the spilling of blood on the threshold, are incidents which have great significance.
_=18.=_ If the striker move his own or any other ball _while in the act of striking_, the stroke is foul; and if, by the same stroke, he pocket a ball or force it off the table, the owner of that ball does not lose a life, and the ball so pocketed must be placed on its original spot. But if by that foul stroke the player pocket his own ball or force it off the table, _he_ loses a life. _=19.=_ If the striker’s ball touch the one he has to play at, he is at liberty either to play at it or at any other ball on the table, and such stroke is not to be considered foul; in such a case, however, the striker loses a life by running his ball into a pocket or forcing it over the table. _=20.=_ If, after making a hazard, the striker takes up his ball, or stops it before it has done running, he cannot claim the life for the ball pocketed. _=21.=_ If, before a star, two or more balls, each having one life, are pocketed by the same stroke, the owner of the first ball struck can star; but if he refuse, the other player whose ball was pocketed may star. _=22.
Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_) calls Merrytotter the game of See-saw, and notes that the antiquity of the game is shown by its insertion in Pynson, Myry totir, child s game, oscillum. Chaucer probably alludes to it in the following lines of the _Miller s Tale_-- What eileth you? some gay girle (God it wote) Hath brought you thus on the merry tote. Merry-ma-tansa [Music] --Biggar (Wm. Ballantyne). I. Here we go round by jingo-ring, Jingo-ring, and jingo-ring, Here we go round by jingo-ring, About the merry-ma-tansa. Come name the lad you like the best, Like the best, like the best, Come name the lad you like the best, About the merry-ma-tansa. Guess ye wha s the young gudeman, The young gudeman, the young gudeman, Come guess ye wha s the young gudeman About the merry-ma-tansa. Honey s sweet and so is he, So is he, so is he, Honey s sweet and so is he, About the merry-ma-tansa. [Or-- Crab-apples are sour and so is he, So is he, so is he, Crab-apples are sour and so is he, About the merry-ma-tansa.
Do not lead trumps if you have no good plain suit, and can make more tricks by playing for a cross-ruff. Do not lead trumps if the weaker hand can trump some of your losing cards first. It often happens that a _=losing trump=_ can be used to win a trick before trumps are led. _=At No-trump.=_ The declarer’s first care in a no-trumper must be to select the suit that he will play for. Four simple rules cover this choice:-- 1. Always lead from the weak hand to the strong if the suit is not already established. 2. Play for the suit in which you have the greatest number of cards between the two hands, because it will probably yield the greatest number of tricks. 3.
But Barney, the stick-man who d felt my Blackout, caught on a lot quicker. I was about to freeze him with a clamp on his thyroid. It s just as effective as wrapping your fingers around the throat. But Pheola upset the apple cart. She grabbed my right arm, so newly powerful. No, Billy Joe! she cried. I _don t_ want to die! Who s dying? I snapped. He s shooting me! she gasped. Shoot? With what? I had one terrified moment--what to lift? What was aimed at her? At the last possible moment I saw it. His crap-stick was a hollow tube, and he was raising it toward _me_, not toward Pheola.
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. Bonnety This is a boys game. The players place their bonnets or caps in a pile. They then join hands and stand in a circle round it. They then pull each other, and twist and wriggle round and round and over it, till one overturns it or knocks a bonnet off it. The player who does so is hoisted on the back of another, and pelted by all the others with their bonnets.
If a player break up a table, the others have a prior right of entry elsewhere. SHUFFLING. 28. The pack must not be shuffled below the table nor so the face of any card be seen. 29. The dealer’s partner must collect the cards from the preceding deal and has the right to shuffle first. Each player has the right to shuffle subsequently. The dealer has the right to shuffle last, but should a card or cards be seen during his shuffling or while giving the pack to be cut, he must reshuffle. 30. After shuffling, the cards, properly collected, must be placed face downward to the left of the next dealer, where they must remain untouched until the end of the current deal.
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| -- |Pray tell me the name | -- | | | |of your young man. | | | 26.| -- | -- | -- | | 27.| -- | -- |A waiting for to come.| | 28.| -- | -- | -- | | 29.|To take you up the | -- | -- | | |garden. | | | | 30.|Suppose this young man| -- |Suppose he were to | | |was to die. | |die.
IV. There _was_ a farmer _had_ a dog, His name was Bobby Bingo. B-i-n-g-o, B-i-n-g-o, B-i-n-g-o, His name was Bobby Bingo. --Tean, Staffs.; and North Staffs. Potteries (Miss Keary). V. The farmer s dog lay on the hearth, And Bingo was his name oh! B-i-n-g-o, B-i-n-g-o, B-i-n-g-o, And Bingo was his name oh! --Nottinghamshire (Miss Winfield). VI. The miller s dog lay on the wall, And Bingo was his name Oh! B-i-n-g-o, And Bingo was his name Oh! --Maxey, Northants (Rev.
Nothing is more common among advantage players than turning up Jacks every few deals. _=Begging=_ is resorted to by a player who holds no trumps, or such indifferent ones that it is very unlikely they will be either High or Low. If he has anything better, such as very high or low cards in other suits, such a hand is called, “a good hand to run to,” and the player begs, hoping the new trump will better fit his hand. If he has nothing better in other suits than in the turn-up, it will still be slightly in his favour to beg, unless he has trumps enough to give him some hopes of making the point for Game. It is a fatal error to beg on good cards, and gamblers have a saying that he who begs a point to-day, will beg a stake to-morrow. _=High=_ and _=Low=_ count to the player to whom those cards are dealt, and there is no chance to alter the fortunes of the deal except by begging and running the cards. These two points may both be made by the same card, if it is the only trump in play; because High is counted for the best trump out during the deal, and Low for the lowest, no matter what the cards are. _=Catching the Jack=_, or saving it, is one of the principal objects of the game, and as a rule a player holding the Jack should lose no opportunity to save such a valuable counting card. On the other hand, a player holding higher trumps will often have to use good judgment as to whether to lead them to catch the Jack, if it happens to be out; or to keep quiet until the last few tricks, when if the Jack is not out, such trumps may be useful to win cards that count for Game. _=The Game=_ is generally known as _=the gambler’s point=_, because it is the only point that must be played for in every hand, and its management requires more skill than all the others put together.