One, two, three. --Warwick (from a little girl living near Warwick, through Mr. C. C. Bell). XIII. How many miles to London? Three score ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. Open the gate and let me through. Not unless you re black and blue.
The communion with the dead which is indicated by No. 23 is by no means considered impossible by the peasantry. In confirmation of this being a representation of an old funeral ceremony, it may be pointed out that the action of turning backwards during the singing of the dirge is also represented in the curious funeral ceremony called Dish-a-loof, which is described in Henderson s _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 53. Henderson s words are: All the attendants, going out of the room, return into it backwards, repeating this rhyme of saining. The additional ceremony of marriage in four of the games is clearly an interpolation, which may have arisen from the custom of playing love and marriage games at funerals and during the watching with the corpse, or may be a mere transition to the more pleasant task of love-making as the basis of a game. The Derbyshire incident (No. 24) may indicate indeed that the funeral is that of a young bride, and in that case the tendency to make the game wholly a marriage game is accounted for. The decay which has set in is apparent by the evident attempt to alter from green gravel to green grover and yellow gravel (Nos. 4 and 5), and to introduce pen and black ink (No.
If a player makes an insufficient or impossible declaration, either adversary may call attention to it. Suppose the last bid is three royals, and the next player says four clubs. This is not enough, as three royals is worth 27 and four clubs only 24. Unless the player in error correct himself at once, and make it five clubs, either adversary may demand that it be five clubs, and the partner of the corrected player cannot bid unless this five-club bid is over-called or doubled. A player correcting himself must stick to the suit named, not being allowed to say four diamonds when he sees that four clubs is not enough. If an insufficient declaration is passed or over-called by the player on the left, it is too late to demand any penalty, and the insufficient bid stands as regular. Suppose A bids three royals and Y says four clubs, B and Z passing. A can repeat his bid of three royals if he likes, as that is enough to over-call four clubs. If a player makes an impossible declaration, such as calling six diamonds over five no trumps, when it is clearly impossible to make any diamond declaration worth 50, either adversary may demand a new deal, or may insist that the last bid made by his own side, five no trumps, shall be the winning declaration, or he may force the player in error to declare a grand slam in diamonds and play it, his partner being forbidden to take him out. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.
The tune in all versions is the same. See Merry ma-tansa, Nettles. Munshets or Munshits Is played by two boys as follows:--One of the boys remains at home, and the other goes out to a prescribed distance. The boy who remains at home makes a small hole in the ground, and holds in his hand a stick about three feet long to strike with. The boy who is out at field throws a stick in the direction of this hole, at which the other strikes. If he hits it, he has to run to a prescribed mark and back to the hole without being caught or touched with the smaller stick by his playfellow. If he is caught, he is out, and has to go to field. And if the boy at field can throw his stick so near to the hole as to be within the length or measure of that stick, the boy at home has to go out to field. A number of boys often play together; for any even number can play. I am told that the game was common fifty years ago.
When the opposite side says Yes! the two take the first child in the row and dance round with her, singing the remaining verse. This is called the wedding. The Lanarkshire version is quite a different one, and contains rather remarkable features. Mr. Black says that the game was played entirely by girls, never by boys, and generally in the months of May or June, about forty years ago. The children sang with rather mincing and refined voices, evidently making an effort in this direction. They walked, with their hands clasped behind their backs, up and down the road. Each child was crowned with rushes, and also had sashes or girdles of rushes. Mr. Ballantyne says in his boyhood it was played by a row of boys on one side and another of girls opposite.
When a deal has been played the cards of the respective players, including the trump card, must be placed in the tray face down and the trump slip placed face up on top of the dealer’s cards. SEC. 8. If on the overplay of a deal, the dealer turns a trump card other than the one recorded on the trump slip, and such error is discovered and corrected before the play of the deal is commenced, the card turned in error is liable to be called. SEC. 9. If such error is not corrected until after the overplay has begun and more than two tables are engaged in play, the players at that table shall take the average score for the deal; if less than three tables are in play there must be a new deal. SEC. 10. Should a player record on the trump slip a different trump from one turned in dealing and the error be discovered at the next table, there must be a new deal.
[The rest is the same as in the last version, p. 393.] --Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 221-222). VI. Mother, mother, may I (or we) go out to play? No, child! no, child! not for the day. Why, mother? why, mother? I won t stay long. Make three pretty courtesies, and away begone. One for mammy, one for daddy, one for Uncle John. Where, child! where, child! have you been all the day? Up to granny s.
D and A call it, and all show hands. If any of the three, A, B or D can beat C they divide the pool, B getting his third, although he did not contribute to the call. This game is a pure gamble; except that a bold player may occasionally bluff the field off. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Poker and its congeners have received more attention from the greeks than any other family of card games. In fact it is generally believed that the term greek, as applied to a card sharper, had its origin in the Adam of the poker family, which was a gambling game introduced by the Greeks in Italy. So numerous and so varied are the methods of cheating at Poker that it is an axiom among gamblers that if a pigeon will not stand one thing he will another. The best informed make it a rule never to play Poker with strangers, because they realize that it is impossible for any but a professional gambler to know half the tricks employed by the poker sharp. It is a notorious fact that even the shrewdest gamblers are continually being taken in by others more expert than themselves. What chance then has the honest card player? There are black sheep in all flocks, and it may be well to give a few hints to those who are in the habit of playing in mixed companies.
=_ No person except an opponent has a right to tell the player that he is using the wrong ball, or to inform the non-striker that his opponent has used the wrong ball; and if the opponent does not see the striker use the ball, or, seeing him, does not claim the penalty, the marker is bound to score to the striker any points made. _=19.=_ Should the striker [whose ball is in hand], in playing up the table on a ball or balls in baulk, either by accident or design, strike one of them [with his own ball] without first going out of baulk, his opponent may have the balls replaced, score a miss, and follow on; or may cause the striker to play again, or may claim a foul, and have the red spotted and the balls broken again. _=20.=_ The striker, when in hand, may not play at a cushion within the baulk (except by going first up the table) so as to hit balls that are within or without the line. _=21.=_ If in hand, and in the act of playing, the striker shall move his ball with insufficient strength to take it out of baulk, it shall be counted as a miss to the opponent, who, however, may oblige him to replace his ball and play again. [Failing to play out of baulk, the player may be compelled to play his stroke over again.] _=22.=_ If in playing a pushing stroke the striker pushes more than once it is unfair, and any score he may make does not count.
When this is done, the children all dance round and sing the other lines. (_d_) The analysis of the game-rhymes is on pp. 178-181. The most constant formulæ of this game-rhyme are shown by this analysis to be Nos. 1, 6, 7, 13, 15, 18, 23, and the variants, though important, are not sufficient to detract from the significance of the normal version. It is evidently a funeral game. The green gravel and the green grass indicate the locality of the scene; green, as applied to gravel, may mean freshly disturbed, just as green grave means a freshly made grave. The tenant of the new grave is the well-loved lady of a disconsolate lover, and probably the incidents of washing and dressing the corpse, and putting an inscription on the place where it is laid, are indicated by Nos. 13 and 15. The dirge, or singing to the dead, is indicated by Nos.
XII. Here we go up the green grass, The green grass, the green grass; Here we go up the green grass, So early in the morning. Fair maid, pretty maid; Give your hand to me, And you shall see a blackbird, A blackbird on the tree; All sorts of colours Lying by his side, Take me, dearest [----], For to be my bride-- Will you come? No! Naughty old maid, she won t come out, She won t come out, To help us with our dancing-- Will you come? Yes! Now we ve got the bonny lass, Now we ve got the bonny lass, To help us with our dancing. --Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler). XIII. Trip trap over the grass, If you please, will you let one of your [eldest] daughters come, Come and dance with me? I will give you pots and pans, I will give you brass, I will give you anything For a pretty lass-- No! I will give you gold and silver, I will give you pearl, I will give you anything For a pretty girl. Take one, take one, the fairest you may see. The fairest one that I can see Is pretty [Nancy], come to me; You shall have a duck, my dear, And you shall have a drake, And you shall have a young man, Apprentice for your sake. If this young man should happen to die, And leave this poor woman a widow, The bells shall all ring and the birds shall all sing, And we ll clap hands together. --Halliwell s _Popular Nursery Rhymes_, cccxxxii.
If a player will not make a bid, he says “_=I pass=_,” A bid having been made, any following player must either increase it or pass. If all pass until it comes to the dealer, he is bound to bid at least one trick, and either play or pay. The hands are never abandoned except in case of a misdeal. In some places a _=misère=_ bid is allowed, which outranks a bid of three tricks, and is beaten by one of four. There is no trump suit in misère, but the bidder, if successful, must lead for the first trick. Any bid once made can neither be amended nor recalled, and there is no second bid. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The player bidding the highest number of tricks has the first lead, and the first card he plays must be one of the trump suit. The players must follow suit if able, but need not win the trick unless they choose to do so. The highest card played of the suit led wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits.
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. _=Trumps.
_=17.=_ In the event of either player using his opponent’s ball and scoring, the red must be spotted and the balls broken again by the non-striker; but if no score is made, the next player may take his choice of balls and continue to use the ball he so chooses to the end of the game. No penalty, however, attaches in either case unless the mistake be discovered before the next stroke. _=18.=_ No person except an opponent has a right to tell the player that he is using the wrong ball, or to inform the non-striker that his opponent has used the wrong ball; and if the opponent does not see the striker use the ball, or, seeing him, does not claim the penalty, the marker is bound to score to the striker any points made. _=19.=_ Should the striker [whose ball is in hand], in playing up the table on a ball or balls in baulk, either by accident or design, strike one of them [with his own ball] without first going out of baulk, his opponent may have the balls replaced, score a miss, and follow on; or may cause the striker to play again, or may claim a foul, and have the red spotted and the balls broken again. _=20.=_ The striker, when in hand, may not play at a cushion within the baulk (except by going first up the table) so as to hit balls that are within or without the line. _=21.
L for Läufer, or Bishop. S for Springer, or Knight. The Pawn is called a Bauer, but when it is moved no initial is given, simply the square it comes from. In Diagram No. 12, for instance, the English notation for the first two moves made by white would be:--P-K 4, and K Kt-B 3, or, Kt-K B 3. The German notation would be:--e 2-e 4; and S g 1-f 3. The move of the Knight, it will be observed, gives the initial of the piece and the square upon which it stands, and then the square to which it is moved. A capture is indicated by the letter “n” taking the place of the dash. If the white Knight took the black King’s Pawn in Diagram No. 12, for instance, the move would be recorded: S f 3 n e 5, that is, the Springer at f 3 “nimmt” whatever it found at e 5.
If a bet is made, the calling and raising proceeds as in Draw Poker. When there are not enough cards to supply the players, the discards must be gathered, shuffled, and cut. Any player with too many or too few cards must abandon his hand as foul. Any player showing his cards must abandon his hand, and forfeit four counters to the pool. The general laws of Poker governing all irregularities may be applied to Ambigu; but it must be remembered that the French are very much averse to penalties of all kinds, and if an error can be rectified without doing an injustice to any player, it is usual to set things right in the simplest manner possible. _=Value of the Hands.=_ There are seven combinations of value in Ambigu, which rank in the following order, beginning with the lowest:-- _=The Point.=_ The total number of pips on two or more cards of the same suit. A single card does not count for the point. Three cards of one suit are a better point than two cards, even if there are more pips on the two cards.
When any player has one long suit good for either no trumps or nullos, such as A K Q 6 4 2, he should “shout,” bidding a trick more than necessary. Singletons and missing suits are valuable parts of a nullo hand, as they afford opportunities for discards. It is always dangerous to bid a nullo without the deuce of the longest suit. If the dealer bids a spade, his partner may safely bid one nullo, because the contract is seldom or never obtained for less than two or three, but he should not persist in the nullo if his partner does not assist it. The greater the opposition from a no-trumper, the more probable that the nullo will succeed, but it is a dangerous declaration in any case. The player with aces and kings is sure to win tricks, regardless of his partner’s hand, but deuces and treys are not sure to lose, as the partner may have all high cards, although not the tops. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PLAY.=_ The declarer should count up the tricks he must win, and as a rule win them early, bunching his high cards as much as possible. Suits with two small cards and two high ones must win one trick, but should escape with that. The great point is to lead losing cards from one hand and discard dangerous cards in other suits from the other hand whenever possible.
, misdeal. Manche, F., one game of the rubber. Manque, the numbers from 1 to 18 at Roulette. See Passe. Marque, F., a score which is kept upon the table by means of counters. Martingale, any system which controls the amounts wagered on a series of events. (See chapter on Chance and Probability.) Massé, a shot made with the cue held nearly perpendicular.
If he calls, the player holding the ace names the trump suit; but the suit so named must not be the suit of the called ace. Forcée in clubs is worth double, 8 counters. _=Playing.=_ The trump named, the eldest hand leads any card he pleases, 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 hands are abandoned as soon as the bidder takes five tricks, if he is playing anything but a tout. If he goes on he must win all eight tricks, or lose the value of a tout. _=Payments.=_ A solo player wins from or loses to each of his adversaries individually the amount of the game in counters. Two partners pay or receive each from one adversary.
_=MAKING THE TRUMP.=_ In auction, the dealer begins by naming any one of the four suits, or no trumps, for any number of tricks he pleases. Each player in turn to the left then has the privilege of passing, bidding higher, or doubling. When three players pass a bid, it is the highest made and is known as the _=Winning Declaration=_ or _=Contract=_. In order to understand the principles that govern the players in their declarations, one should be thoroughly familiar with the values attached to the tricks when certain suits are trumps. The first six tricks taken by the side that has made the winning declaration do not count. This is the “book,” but all over the book count toward making good on the contract, according to the following table: When Spades are trumps, each trick counts 2 points. ” Clubs ” ” ” ” ” 6 ” ” Diamonds ” ” ” ” ” 7 ” ” Hearts ” ” ” ” ” 8 ” ” Royal Spades ” ” ” ” ” 9 ” ” there are no trumps, ” ” ” 10 ” The game is 30 points, which must be made by tricks alone, so that three over the book, called three “by cards,” will go game from love at no trump, or four by cards at hearts or royals. These are called the _=Major=_ or _=Winning Suits=_. As it takes five by cards to go game in clubs or diamonds, and on account of the difficulty of such an undertaking, these are called the _=Minor=_ or _=Losing Suits=_.
Lemcke. 1887. All but the first two on the list treat of the old game, bidding by suits, and making no mention of Guckis; but some of them, especially Buhle’s, contain some very fine examples of good play. The first two on the list and the last two are in English. All the others are in German. AMERICAN SKAT. In this variation, now so largely played, the highest bidder always sees the skat before announcing his game. Although a gucki, it need not be a grand, but may be solo or nullo if he likes. If he wins the game he announces the scores as usual; but if he loses he always loses double. He may announce schneider or schwarz after discarding for the skat.
A version of this game played at Eckington, Derbyshire, is played as follows:--A den is chalked out or marked out for the Fox. A larger den, opposite to this, is marked out for the Geese. A boy or a girl represents the Fox, and a number of others the Geese. Then the Fox shouts, Geese, Geese, gannio, and the Geese answer, Fox, Fox, fannio. Then the Fox says, How many Geese have you to-day? The Geese reply, More than you can catch and carry away. Then the Geese run out of the den, and the Fox tries to catch them. He puts as many as he catches into his den (S. O. Addy). (_b_) This game is a very general one at Christmas time.