207, N & S. Aver. 183, E & W. The _=e=_ and _=f=_ pairs make the best scores N & S and E & W respectively; the _=f=_ pair, having won the greatest number of tricks above the average of the hands, would be the winners. _=Howell Pair System.=_ A very popular system of managing pairs in club games, and also in the national tournaments for the Minneapolis trophy, is called the Howell Pairs. Indicator cards are placed on the tables, which show each player the number of the table and the position at that table to which he should move next. Sometimes he will sit N, sometimes S, and sometimes E or W, but he always finds his partner opposite him, and at the end of the game he will have had every other pair in the game for an adversary once, and will have played all the hands dealt. A different set of indicator cards is required for every different number of tables in the game. They are the invention of the late E.
| -- | -- | -- | |25.| -- | -- | -- | |26.| -- |We ll set a man to |Set a man to watch all| | | |watch all night. |night. | |27.|Suppose the man should|If the man should fall| -- | | |fall asleep. |asleep. | | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- |What has this poor | | | | |prisoner done? | |30.
Such combinations are always worth 15 points; 9 for the triple run of three, and 6 for the pair royal. [Illustration: 🃑 🃁 🃒 🂳 🃓 ] If the duplicates are of two different cards, no matter which, it will be found that four different sequences of three cards each can be formed by changing the Aces and Threes alternately. Such combinations are therefore always worth 16 points: four runs of three, worth 12, and 4 points for the two separate pairs. [Illustration: 🂡 🂢 🂳 🃔 🃄 ] If the five cards contain one sequence of four, and one duplicate, the combination will always be worth 10 points; 8 for the double run of four, and 2 for the pair. The foregoing should be thoroughly familiar to every player, so that he may know the exact value of the combination the moment he sees the length of the sequence and the number of duplicates. _=Two-card Fifteens.=_ Any combination of two or more cards, the total face value of which is exactly 15, is called _=fifteen-two=_, because each fifteen so formed is worth two points in the pegging. There are only three combinations of two cards which will form fifteen; a Five with any court card or Ten; a Nine and a Six; an Eight and a Seven. The manner of counting duplicates is the same as that employed for the pairs and sequences, and the player should be equally familiar with each variety of combination. The fifteens formed by _=two cards=_ only are the simplest, and should be studied first.
A bet placed on any of the corners takes in the number it is placed upon and the next higher also; so that a bet upon the corner 1 would be upon the numbers 1 and 2; upon 2 it would be upon 2 and 3; and upon 4 it would be upon 4 and 1. [Illustration: +---------------+X |3 2| | | |4 1| +---------------+ ] In the illustration the bet would be upon 2 and 3. If the bet is placed upon the edge of the card, it takes in the next higher number only. [Illustration: +---------------+ |3 2| | |X |4 1| +---------------+ ] In the illustration the bet is upon the number 2, and no other. After all the bets have been placed, the banker takes a large handful of the beans or counters from the bowl, and places them on the table, counting them off rapidly into fours. The number of odd counters remaining decides which number wins; if none remain, 4 wins. If there were 2 or 3 counters over, the banker would pay all bets on the corners 1 and 2, even money. If there were 2 over, he would pay all bets on the edge of the card between 1 and 2 at the rate of three for one, and so on. The counters are then returned to the bowl, and bets are placed for another coup. Sometimes the banker will draw a handful of beans from the bowl and place them upon the table, covering them with a saucer or with his cap.
One rush, two rush, Pray thee, fine lady, come under my bush. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, Games, cclxxxvii. II. Draw a pail of water, Send a lady a daughter; One o my rush, two o my rush, Please, young lady, creep under the briar bush. --Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler). III. Draw, draw water, For my lady s daughter; One in a rush, Two in a bush, Pretty my lady, pop under the bush. --Berrington and Ellesmere (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 521). IV.
=_ 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. No trump is turned. The deal passes to the left. There are no misdeals. If the cards are not properly distributed, or four cards are not left in the talon, the same dealer must deal again, without penalty. _=Objects of the Game.=_ The chief objects of the game are to win the last trick, and to secure counting cards in the other tricks in the course of play. There are 35 points to be played for in every deal. The six highest cards in each suit, 3 2 A K Q J, have a counting value, the Ace being worth 3, and the others 1 each.
WHISKEY POKER. The arrangements for the cards, seats, etc., are the same as in Draw Poker. Each player is provided with an equal number of white counters, which may have a value attached to them, or which may simply represent markers. If the counters represent money, each player should have at least twenty; if they are only markers, five is the usual number. If the game is played for money, each player puts one counter in the pool before the cards are dealt. There is no raising or betting of any kind. An extra hand, called _=the widow=_, is dealt face down at Whiskey Poker. The dealer gives each player and the widow five cards, one at a time, beginning on his left, and dealing to the widow just before he deals to himself. Each player in turn, beginning with the age, then examines his hand, and has the option of exchanging it for the widow; keeping it for the purpose of drawing to it; or risking his chances of winning the pool with it as it is.
=_ The chief peculiarity in Railroad Euchre is in playing alone. Any player announcing to play alone, whether the dealer or not, has the privilege of passing a card, face down, to his partner. In exchange for this, but without seeing it, the partner gives the best card in his hand to the lone player, passing it to him face down. If he has not a trump to give him, he can pass him an ace, or even a King. Even if this card is no better than the one discarded, the lone player cannot refuse it. If the dealer plays alone, he has two discards; the first in exchange for his partner’s best card, and then another, in exchange for the trump card, after seeing what his partner can give him. In this second discard he may get rid of the card passed to him by his partner. If the dealer’s partner plays alone, the dealer may pass him the turn-up trump, or any better card he may have in his hand. Any person having announced to play alone, either of his adversaries may play alone against him; discarding and taking partner’s best card in the same manner. Should the lone player who makes the trump be euchred by the lone player opposing him, the euchre counts four points.
Of course, I could have let the table s six per cent vigorish take it away from me, but that would have taken longer. Even with losing on every roll, the dice got around to me before I had lost the nine hundred I had set out to drop. I put four chips on the Don t Pass side of the line, shook left-handed because of my weak right arm, and got ready to come out. Sniffles seized me. Don t Billy Joe! she said suddenly. You ll lose! She pushed my chips across the line to the Pass side. That burned me up. Get your hands off my chips, I said, annoyed by bad gambling manners. Her face was all resignation and sadness. Well, not quite all.
The same process is gone through till all the players are taken captive, and have stationed themselves behind the one or the other of the two forming the gate. The last one of the line goes through three times. The first time the word breakfast is pronounced; the second time dinner; and the third time supper. The player then chooses a side. The two sides have then a tug of war. The game ends at this point with girls. With boys the conquered have to run the gauntlet. The victors range themselves in two lines, each boy with his cap or handkerchief tightly plaited in his hand, and pelt with all their might the vanquished as they run between the lines. The boys of Nairn call this running of the gauntlet, through fire an watter. The method of playing the Warwick, Fernham, and Louth versions is practically the same.
But the curtain is drawn back only to tantalise us. It is scarcely conceivable that anywhere now on earth the Shandean Rules remain on record. Perhaps they were never committed to paper.... And in all ages a certain barbaric warfare has been waged with soldiers of tin and lead and wood, with the weapons of the wild, with the catapult, the elastic circular garter, the peashooter, the rubber ball, and such-like appliances--a mere setting up and knocking down of men. Tin murder. The advance of civilisation has swept such rude contests altogether from the playroom. We know them no more.
A-B make eight only, which they score, Y-Z scoring nothing. When a player renounces, his partner should ask him if he is void of the suit. If any player abandons his hand, the cards in it may be exposed and called by the adversaries. The practice of throwing down the hand as soon as one renounces to trumps, cannot be too strongly condemned. All _=exposed cards=_, such as cards dropped on the table; two or more played at once; cards led out of turn; or cards named by the player holding them, must be left face up on the table, and are liable to be called by the adversaries, unless they can be previously got rid of in the course of play. If the exposed card is a trump, the adversaries may prevent its being played, but the holder of it is not liable for a revoke in such cases. _=SCORING.=_ When the last card has been played, each side turns over all the tricks won, and counts the points they contain; High, Low, Jack, Game, Right and Left Pedro. Everything, including Low, counts to the side winning it. The number of points won or lost is determined by deducting the lower score from the higher, the difference being the number of points won on that deal.
When the robbers sing the last verse they should have attained the end of the lines [of children], as during the parley they were safe; having pronounced the defiance they run away. The children in the lines rush after them, and should catch them and put them in prison. (_c_) The analysis of this game is easy. The Deptford, Belfast, and Wolstanton versions are clearly enough dramatic representations of the capture of a robber, and probably the game dates from the period of the prevalence of highway robbery. The Wolstanton version shows us that the game is breaking up from its earlier form, while the Norfolk and Shropshire versions show a fresh development into the mere game for children, apart from its original significance. The action of the game confirms this view. The Norfolk action seems to be the most nearly perfect in its dramatic significance, and the Shropshire action comes next. The action of the other games seems to have been grafted on to the superior form of Oranges and Lemons. It is probable that this fact has preserved the words more completely than in the other cases, where the force of the robber action would become less and less as actual experience of robbers and robbery died out. Altogether, this game supplies a very good example of the change produced in games by changes in the actual life which gave rise to them.
If he has double binocle, he may lay down the single first, and then the other, claiming the count for both. Four Kings and four Queens count 220. The trump sequence counts 190. No player is allowed to meld after he has played to the first trick. If he discovers he had more to meld, but has played a card, the unannounced score is lost. An interesting variation is sometimes introduced by allowing the other players to claim any score overlooked by the one who melds. The total number of points claimed by each player is simply announced, but not scored. The player must win a trick before he can score anything; but the first trick he wins entitles him to score everything he has announced, including dix. It is usual to put the melds on a slate, and to rub them out if the player does not win a trick. _=Playing.
When you lead the King, if Mittelhand has none of the suit he is sure to fatten the trick for his partner, thinking he must have Ace or Ten. With the Ten, King, and small cards of a plain suit, lay the Ten and King in the Skat. _=The Adversaries=_ should combine against the single player by getting him between them if possible. If you sit on the left of the player, lead your short suits up to him; but if you sit on his right, lead your longest suit through him. Try to force out his trumps on your plain-suit cards if you can, and avoid giving him discards of his weak suits. With a long trump suit, it is often advantageous to lead it through the player, but seldom right to lead it up to him. In Solos, the adversaries should lead Aces and winning cards, and change suits frequently. If you are playing against a Grand, and have two trumps, one of them the best, lead it, and then play your long suit; but if you have the two smallest trumps, lead the long suit first, and force with it every time you get in. The partners should always scheme to protect each other’s Tens by keeping the Aces of plain suits. For this reason it is very bad play to fatten with the Ace of a suit of which you have not the Ten, or to play an Ace third hand when there are only small cards in the trick, and the Ten of the suit has not been played and you do not hold it.
Newell, _Games_, p. 165, refers to this game. See Hot Cockles. Hickety-hackety The game of Hop-scotch, played with a piece of tile, which has to be kicked by the player with the foot on which he hops over lines into various squares marked on the ground.--Somersetshire (Elworthy s _Dialect_). See Hop-scotch. Hick, Step, and Jump The game of Hop, step, and jump. --Somerset (Holloway s _Dict. of Provincialisms_). See Half-Hammer.
The rules governing declarations are as follows:-- The player making the declaration must have won the previous trick, and must make his announcement before drawing his card from the stock. When the stock is exhausted, so that no cards remain to be drawn, no announcements can be made. Only one declaration can be scored at a time, so that a trick must be won for every announcement made, or the combination cannot be scored. This rule does not prevent a player from making two or more announcements at the same time; but he can score only one of them. A player cannot make a lower declaration with cards which form part of a higher combination already shown in the same class. For instance:--Marriages and sequences belong to the same class. If a sequence has been declared, the player cannot take from it the King and Queen, and score for the marriage; neither can he add a new Queen to the King already used in the sequence, because the higher combination was scored first. The same rule applies to lower and higher béziques. But if the lower combination is first shown and scored--the marriage--the A 10 J may be added afterward, on winning another trick, and the sequence scored. This rule does not apply to cards belonging to combinations in different classes.
[_All rights reserved._] THE TRADITIONAL GAMES Of England, Scotland, and Ireland WITH TUNES, SINGING-RHYMES, AND METHODS OF PLAYING ACCORDING TO THE VARIANTS EXTANT AND RECORDED IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE KINGDOM COLLECTED AND ANNOTATED BY ALICE BERTHA GOMME VOL. I. ACCROSHAY-NUTS IN MAY LONDON DAVID NUTT, 270-71 STRAND 1894 TO _MY HUSBAND_ PREFACE Soon after the formation of the Folk-lore Society in 1878 my husband planned, and has ever since been collecting for, the compilation of a dictionary of British Folk-lore. A great deal of the material has been put in form for publication, but at this stage the extent of the work presented an unexpected obstacle to its completion. To print the whole in one alphabet would be more than could be accomplished except by the active co-operation of a willing band of workers, and then the time required for such an undertaking, together with the cost, almost seemed to debar the hope of ever completing arrangements for its publication. Nevertheless, unless we have a scientific arrangement of the enormously scattered material and a close comparison of the details of each item of folk-lore, it is next to impossible to expect that the full truth which lies hidden in these remnants of the past may be revealed. During my preparation of a book of games for children it occurred to me that to separate the whole of the games from the general body of folk-lore and to make them a section of the proposed dictionary would be an advantageous step, as by arranging the larger groups of folk-lore in independent sections the possibility of publishing the contemplated dictionary again seemed to revive. Accordingly, the original plan has been so far modified that these volumes will form the first section of the dictionary, which, instead of being issued in one alphabet throughout, will now be issued in sections, each section being arranged alphabetically. The games included in this collection bear the important qualification of being nearly all Children s Games: that is to say, they were either originally children s games since developed into games for adults, or they were the more serious avocations of adults, which have since become children s games only.
Vexatious delays in business matters. Eight. Bad news. If followed by the ♢ 7, quarrels. Seven. Quarrels which will be lasting unless the card is followed by some hearts. _=R.=_ Family rows. _=COMBINATIONS.=_ 4 aces, death; 3 aces, dissipation; 2 aces, enmity.
Her consciousness was as gentle and clear and yet sharp to the taste of his mind as if it were scented oil. It felt relaxing and reassuring. He could sense her welcome of him. It was scarcely a thought, just a raw emotion of greeting. At last they were one again. In a tiny remote corner of his mind, as tiny as the smallest toy he had ever seen in his childhood, he was still aware of the room and the ship, and of Father Moontree picking up a telephone and speaking to a Scanner captain in charge of the ship. His telepathic mind caught the idea long before his ears could frame the words. The actual sound followed the idea the way that thunder on an ocean beach follows the lightning inward from far out over the seas. The Fighting Room is ready. Clear to planoform, sir.
| | . | | . | | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | .
GENERAL RULES. 90. A trick turned and quitted may not be looked at (except under Law 82) until the end of the play. The penalty for the violation of this law is 25 points in the adverse honour score. 91. Any player during the play of a trick or after the four cards are played, and before the trick is turned and quitted, may demand that the cards be placed before their respective players. 92. When an adversary of the declarer, before his partner plays, calls attention to the trick, either by saying it is his, or, without being requested to do so, by naming his card or drawing it toward him, the declarer may require such partner to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, or to win or lose the trick. 93. An adversary of the declarer may call his partner’s attention to the fact that he is about to play or lead out of turn; but if, during the play, he make any unauthorized reference to any incident of the play, the declarer may call a suit from the adversary whose next turn it is to lead.
S. Baker, who records this, says a Wellingborough lady sent him the tune and words, and told him the game was more like a country dance than anything else, being a sort of dancing Follow My Leader. Gully A sink, or, failing that, a particular stone in the pavement was the Gully. Some boy chosen by lot, or one who volunteered in order to start the game, laid his top on the ground at some distance from the Gully. The first player then spun his top, pegging at the recumbent top, so as to draw it towards the Gully. If he missed the top, he stooped down and took up his own top by pushing his hand against it in such a manner that the space between his first and second finger caught against the peg and forced the top into the palm of his hand. He then had a go at the recumbent top (I forget what this was called), and sent his own top against it so as to push it towards the Gully. If he missed, he tried again and again, until his own top could spin no longer. If he did not hit the top with his own while it was spinning, his top had to be laid down and the other one taken up, and its owner took his turn at pegging. When a spinning-top showed signs of exhaustion, and the taking it up might kill it, and it was not very far from the down-lying top, its owner would gently push it with his finger, so as to make it touch the other top, and so avoid putting it into the other s place.
This innocent sport seems to be almost entirely forgotten in the South of Scotland. It is also falling into desuetude in the North. (_b_) The following description of Barley-break, written by Sir Philip Sidney, is taken from the song of Lamon, in the first volume of the _Arcadia_, where he relates the passion of Claius and Strephon for the beautiful Urania:-- She went abroad, thereby, At _barley-brake_ her sweet, swift foot to try. . . . Afield they go, where many lookers be. Then couples three be straight allotted there, They of both ends, the middle two, do fly; The two that in mid-place Hell called were Must strive, with waiting foot and watching eye, To catch of them, and them to hell to bear, That they, as well as they, may hell supply; Like some that seek to salve their blotted name Will others blot, till all do taste of shame. There may you see, soon as the middle two Do, coupled, towards either couple make, They, false and fearful, do their hands undo; Brother his brother, friend doth friend forsake, Heeding himself, cares not how fellow do, But of a stranger mutual help doth take; As perjured cowards in adversity, With sight of fear, from friends to friends do fly. Sir John Suckling also has given a description of this pastime with allegorical personages, which is quoted by Brand.
The matter went no further with Mr J. K. J. The seed lay for a time gathering strength, and then began to germinate with another friend, Mr W. To Mr W. was broached the idea: I believe that if one set up a few obstacles on the floor, volumes of the British Encyclopedia and so forth, to make a Country, and moved these soldiers and guns about, one could have rather a good game, a kind of kriegspiel. ... Primitive attempts to realise the dream were interrupted by a great rustle and chattering of lady visitors.
O Mary! O Mary! your true love is dead, And he s sent you a letter to turn round your head. --Wales (_Byegones_, 1890). XI. Yellow gravel, yellow gravel, The grass is so green, The fairest young lady That ever was seen. O ----, O ----, Your true love is dead; I send you a letter to turn round your head. --Cowes, Isle of Wight (Miss E. Smith). XII. Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green, Said the fairest young damsel that ever I ve seen. O mother, O mother, my true-love is dead, He sent me this letter to turn round my head.
Tricks bid | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+-----+ Amount. | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 35 | 45 | 65 | 105 | 170 | If the caller fails in his undertaking, he must pay each adversary according to the number of tricks by which he failed to reach his bid. For instance: A player bidding eight, and taking only seven, is said to be “_=put in for=_” one trick, and he would have to pay each adversary 23 white counters. These payments are shown in this table:-- -----------+--------------------------------------------------- Tricks bid | Number of tricks by which the player falls short by the | of his declaration. player. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- | 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9| 10| 11| 12| 13 -----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- Five | 11| 21| 31| 41| 50| | | | | | | | Six | 15| 24| 35| 45| 55| 66| | | | | | | Seven | 19| 29| 40| 50| 60| 72| 82| | | | | | Eight | 23| 34| 46| 56| 67| 78| 89|110| | | | | Nine | 33| 44| 57| 68| 82| 92|103|115|127| | | | Ten | 44| 56| 70| 82| 94|107|119|132|145|157| | | Eleven | 67| 80| 95|109|123|138|151|165|180|194|208| | Twelve |113|130|148|165|182|200|217|234|252|270|286|304| Thirteen |177|198|222|241|262|284|305|326|348|369|390|412|433 -----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- We give the same table reduced to the American decimal system, in which form it is commonly found in the clubs. It may be remarked in passing that the table is very illogical and inconsistent, the payments bearing no relation to the probabilities of the events. Some of them provide for impossibilities, unless the player has miscalled the trump suit, and is held to it, but we have no authority to change them. --------+---------------------------------------------------- | Number of tricks bidder is “put in for.” Tricks +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---- bid.