A man goes inside the ring and walks round within it, whilst the others sing the verse. The young man then chooses a sweetheart, and the two walk round arm-in-arm within the ring, whilst the same verses are sung. When the singing is ended, the girl picks a young man, and so they all pair off. (_c_) Mr. Addy entitles this game Kiss in the Ring. It appears, however, from this description to lack the two principal elements of most kiss-in-the-ring games--the chase between pursued and pursuer, and the kissing in the ring when the capture is made. In the Hanging Heaton version two children kneel and kiss in the middle of the ring. Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 73), in describing a game with a similar rhyme, mentions a version which had been sent him from Waterford, Ireland.
--Summertown, Oxford (A. H. Franklin, _Midland Garner_, vol. ii. p. 32). XV. Round the green gravel the grass grows green, All pretty fair maids are fit to be seen; Wash them in milk, and clothe them in silk, And write down their names with pen and black ink-- Choose one, choose two, choose the fairest daughter. Now, my daughter, married to-day, Like father and mother they should be, To love one another like sister and brother-- I pray you now to kiss one another. Now my daughter Mary s gone, With her pockets all lined with gold; On my finger a gay gold ring-- Good-bye, Mary, good-bye.
Any packet disclosing a card lower than the dealer’s loses all bets placed upon it. Any packet showing a card better than the dealer’s wins from him. The dealer takes all ties. The deal then passes to the next player on the left. Sometimes only three packets are cut, one of which is pushed to the dealer. This game is a great favourite with card-sharpers, especially on ocean steamers. They use packs in which the cards are trimmed long and short, so that a confederate may cut them by the ends or by the sides for high or low cards, afterward pushing one of the high cuts toward the dealer. CHINESE FAN TAN. This is apparently the fairest of all banking games, there being absolutely no percentage in favour of the banker except that the players have to do the guessing. The one who is willing to put up the largest amount of money to be played for is usually selected as the banker.
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=_ Although dice may be of any size, the standard pattern are half an inch square, of ivory or bone, with black spots one tenth of an inch in diameter. The opposite sides of the die always equal seven, and if the die is placed upon the table with the ace uppermost and the deuce nearest you, the four will be on the left and the three on the right. The positions of the three and four are sometimes reversed to enable sharpers to distinguish fair dice from those which have been doctored. At the beginning of any dice game, it is quite unnecessary to examine the dice to be used, because they are always fair. Crooked dice are _=rung in=_ during the game, and the player should make it a point to examine the dice frequently if he has any suspicions. First see that each die has all six figures upon it, for some dice are _=dispatchers=_, made with double numbers, so as to secure higher throws than the natural average. Double fives are great favourites with backgammon sharps. The next thing is to place the dice together in pairs, to be sure that they are exactly the same height each way. If dice are not square they can be made to roll over and over on the same faces. The faces should then be tested to see that they are not convex, even in the slightest degree.
At the end of the last line they turn themselves about without loosing hands. (_c_) Miss Burne includes this among obscure and archaic games, and Halliwell-Phillips mentions it as a marching game. The three first versions have something of the nature of an incantation, while the fourth and fifth versions may probably belong to another game altogether. It is not clear from the great variation in the verses to which class the game belongs. Almonds and Reasons An old English game undescribed.--_Useful Transactions in Philosophy_, 1709, p. 43. Angel and Devil One child is called the Angel, another child the Devil, and a third child the Minder. The children are given the names of colours by the Minder. Then the Angel comes over and knocks, when the following dialogue takes place.
Harley). (_b_) A long row of children walk to and fro. One child, facing them on the opposite side, represents the Rover. He sings the first, third, and fifth verses. The row of children sing the second and fourth in response. After the fifth verse is sung the Rover skips round the long row, singing the sixth verse to the tune of Nancy Dawson, or Round the Mulberry bush. He chooses one of them, who goes to the opposite side with him, and the game goes on until all are rovers like himself. See Here comes a Lusty Wooer, Jolly Hooper. Jolly Sailors I. Here comes one [some] jolly, jolly sailor boy, Who lately came on shore; He [they] spent his time in drinking wine As we have done before.
The players may begin with a game exactly like the ordinary Kriegspiel, with scouts and boxed soldiers, which will develop into such battles as are here described, as the troops come into contact. It would be easy to give the roads a real significance by permitting a move half as long again as in the open country for waggons or boxed troops along a road. There is a possibility of having a toy railway, with stations or rolling stock into which troops might be put, on such a giant war map. One would allow a move for entraining and another for detraining, requiring the troops to be massed alongside the train at the beginning and end of each journey, and the train might move at four or five times the cavalry rate. One would use open trucks and put in a specified number of men--say twelve infantry or five cavalry or half a gun per truck--and permit an engine to draw seven or eight trucks, or move at a reduced speed with more. One could also rule that four men--the same four men--remaining on a line during two moves, could tear up a rail, and eight men in three moves replace it. I will confess I have never yet tried over these more elaborate developments of Little Wars, partly because of the limited time at my disposal, and partly because they all demand a number of players who are well acquainted with the same on each side if they are not to last interminably. The Battle of Hook s Farm (one player a side) took a whole afternoon, and most of my battles have lasted the better part of a day. VI ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE I COULD go on now and tell of battles, copiously. In the memory of the one skirmish I have given I do but taste blood.
If neither of the ties is the bidder, the points count out in their regular order, High first, then Low, then Jack, and finally Game. For instance: Seven are playing. A sells to B, who bids two. B and C have each two to go. B pitches a trump of which C has both High and Low; but if B makes Jack and Game he wins the pool, because he bid only two points, and made them. This is generally expressed by the rule: _=bidder goes out first=_. _=Setting Back.=_ If the player who pitches the trump fails to make the number of points bid, he is set back, and scores nothing for any points he may have made. A player who is set back, either for overbidding his hand, or for refusing to sell and failing to make the number of points offered him, must withdraw from the pool as many white counters as were bid, and add them to his own. For instance: It is A’s sell.
|All lusty bachelors. | | 3.|Except [ ], who |Except [ ], who |Except [ ], who | | |wants a wife. |wants a wife. |courts [ ]. | | 4.|He shall court [ ]. |He shall court [ ]. |He courted [ ]. | | 5.
Let us suppose this adversary to hold the following dominoes: 6-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0, 5-1, 5-0. He would of course play the 6-0, in order to bring the line round to his long suit of 6’s. As this would close the blank end of the line, the first player, whom we shall call A, would have to play on the 5 end, as he has no 6. In order to get the line back to his second longest suit, the blanks, he would play the 5-2, hoping to play 2-0 next time. His adversary, B, would play on this end if he could, but being unable to do so, he gets rid of his heaviest domino, playing the double six. A plays 2-0, and B should now bring in his suit of aces by playing 6-1, which would win the game; but for the sake of illustration we shall suppose that he foolishly plays 6-4. A plays his double four, and the dominoes on the table present the following appearance:-- [Illustration] B, having neither 4 nor 0 on any of his remaining dominoes, says: “_=Go=_,” which signifies that he is blocked, and cannot play. A can now play at either end, and with either of two dominoes; but it would be bad policy to play the 4-5, because his adversary might be able to play to the 5; but it is a certainty that he cannot play to either 0 or 4. If A plays the 4-5, B gets rid of all his dominoes before A can play again. If A plays the 4-0 on the blank end, he will have to play again with his 4-5; but if he plays it on the 4 end he blocks himself.
I guess you could call it an incantation. I got a picture of a nubile waif, too freakish to fit where she d been raised. What had her Hegira been like? In what frightful places had she found herself welcome? From her talk, it could have been an Ozark backwater. I didn t want to know what backwoods crone had taught her some mnemonic rendition of the Devil s Litany. Her hands passed up beyond my shoulder, to my neck. It s in yore haid, she said. In yore darlin haid! Fingers worked over my scalp. Oh, there! she gasped. Hit s ahurtin me! Hurtin , hurtin , and I m a draggin it off n yuh! Her backwoods twang sharpened as she aped some contemporary witch. Hurt? She didn t know what it meant.
_ See Teetotum. Leap Candle The young girls in and about Oxford have a sport called Leap Candle, for which they set a candle in the middle of a room in a candlestick, and then draw up their coats into the form of breeches, and dance over the candle back and forth, saying the words-- The taylor of Bicester he has but one eye, He cannot cut a pair of green galagaskins If he were to die. This sport, in other parts, is called Dancing the Candlerush (Aubrey s _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, p. 45). Halliwell (_Rhymes_, p. 65) has a rhyme-- Jack be nimble, And Jack be quick, And Jack jump over The candlestick, which may refer to this game. Northall (_Folk Rhymes_, p. 412) says in Warwickshire a similar game is called Cock and Breeches. Leap-frog One boy stoops down sideways, with his head bent towards his body, as low as possible. This is called Tucking in your Tuppeny.