Baker (_Northants Notes and Queries_, ii. 161). (_b_) One couple is chosen to lead, and they go off, whither they will, followed by a long train of youths and maidens, all singing the refrain. Sometimes the leaders part company, and branch off to the right or left; the others have to do the same, and not until the leaders meet can they join again. They march arm in arm. (_c_) Mr. R. 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.
(Miss Burne). II. There was three jolly fishermen, And they all put out to sea. They cast their nets into the sea, And the [three?] jolly fish caught we. --North Staffs. Potteries (Mrs. Thomas Lawton). (_b_) A circle is formed by joining hands, and two children stand in the centre. They walk round. At the seventh line the two in the centre each choose one child from the ring, thus making four in the centre.
By the rules also it rests with Red to indicate the survivors within the limits of the melee as he chooses. He takes very good care there are not four men within six inches of either Blue gun, and both these are out of action therefore for Blue s next move. Of course Red would have done far better to have charged home with thirteen men only, leaving seven in support, but he was flurried by his comparatively unsuccessful shooting--he had wanted to hit more cavalry--and by the gun-trail mistake. Moreover, he had counted his antagonist wrongly, and thought he could arrange a melee of twenty against twenty. Figure 5b shows the game at the same stage as 5a, immediately after the adjudication of the melee. The dead have been picked up, the three prisoners, by a slight deflection of the rules in the direction of the picturesque, turn their faces towards captivity, and the rest of the picture is exactly in the position of 5a. It is now Blue s turn to move, and figure 6a shows the result of his move. He fires his rightmost gun (the nose of it is just visible to the right) and kills one infantry-man and one cavalry-man (at the tail of Red s central gun), brings up his surviving eight cavalry into convenient positions for the service of his temporarily silenced guns, and hurries his infantry forward to the farm, recklessly exposing them in the thin wood between the farm and his right gun. The attentive reader will be able to trace all this in figure 6a, and he will also note the three Red cavalry prisoners going to the rear under the escort of one Khaki infantry man. Figure 6b shows exactly the same stage as figure 6a, that is to say, the end of Blue s third move.
There are sixteen different ways for a card to “play,” which are simply the permutations of the stroke and the cypher arranged in rows of four at a time. If a player is betting _=three on a side=_, he will take each card as it becomes a case, and bet that it either wins three times and loses once, or loses once and wins three times. In the foregoing deal he would have bet on the A 3 4 6 9 J to lose on the fourth card out of the box, and would have bet on the case cards of the 2 7 8 10 Q K to win. The Soda, it must be remembered, is really a winning card. Of these bets he would have won 5 out of twelve, taking back his money on the 8, as that card was left in hoc. Playing _=break even=_, these bets would have been exactly reversed, as all the cards would have played either to win and lose an equal number of times, or to _=win=_ or _=lose out=_; that is, to do the same thing all four times. Another favourite system is colours. The player takes some definite card, such as the soda, or the first winner or loser, as his starter, and whatever the colour of the third card of each denomination, that is, the card that makes it a case, he plays it to win or lose, according to the system of colours he is playing. Many players reverse on the last turn. When a player bets one card to lose and another to win, and loses both bets on the same turn, he is _=whipsawed=_.
VIII. Mother, buy some milking-cans, Milking-cans, milking-cans. Where must our money come from? Sell our father s feather bed. [This goes on for many more verses, articles of furniture being mentioned in each succeeding verse.] --Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy). IX. Buy me a milking-pail, my dear mother. Where s the money to come from, my dear daughter? Sell father s feather bed. Where could your father sleep? Sleep in the pig-sty. What s the pigs to sleep in? Put them in the washing-tub.
As there are only 6 ways out of 36 to throw seven, the odds against it are 5 to 1; but the banker pays only 3 for 1. In spite of this enormous percentage in his favour, he frequently adds to his revenue by skilful cheating. LANSQUENET. This is a banking game for any number of players, with a pack of fifty-two cards. After the pack has been shuffled and cut, the dealer lays off two cards, face up for “hand cards.” He then deals a card for himself and one for the players, also face up. If either of these is of the same denomination as either of the hand cards, it must be placed with them, and another card dealt; because all bets must be made on single cards. Having two cards, one for the players and one for himself, the banker turns up cards one at a time. If he draws the same denomination as the players’ card, he wins all the bets upon it. If he draws his own denomination, he loses all bets upon the other card.
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. He then bets any player that there will be 1, 2, 3, or 4 left, the player taking his choice, and being paid three for one if he guesses correctly. In spite of the fact that this game is apparently perfectly fair for all concerned, the author has never seen an American who could win anything at it while a Chinaman was the banker. FARO. This is one of the oldest banking games, and is supposed to be of Italian origin. It belongs to the same family as Lansquenet, Florentini, and Monte Bank. Under the name of Pharaon, it was in great favour during the reign of Louis XIV., and came to America by way of New Orleans. As originally played, the dealer held the cards in his left hand, and any bets once put down could not again be taken up until they were decided.
It is for this reason that every good player first considers the advisability of making it “no-trump,” and if he thinks that injudicious, hearts or diamonds, leaving the black suits as a last resort. It is the custom invariably to make it no-trump with three Aces, unless the hand is strong enough for a heart make, or holds great honour value in red. In estimating the probabilities of trick-taking, it is usual to count the partner for three tricks on the average. Conservative players do not depend on him for more than two. Generally speaking, the maker of the trump should have four pretty certain tricks in his own hand. The dealer should seldom announce a black trump unless he has a certainty of the game in his own hand, without any assistance from his partner, or unless he has such a poor hand that he must make it a “defensive spade.” If he cannot safely make it no-trump or red, he should pass, and allow his partner the chance. With such a hand as seven clubs, including four honours, and absolutely worthless cards otherwise, the dealer should make it clubs, except when the adversaries have won the first game, and are about 20 points in the second. This makes it not unlikely that they will win the rubber on the next hand with their deal. Under such circumstances the dealer must invariably leave it to his partner, in the hope that he can save the rubber by making it no-trump.
They frequently lay them very loosely on, that they may have the pleasure of pelting.--Jamieson. Cat s Cradle One child holds a piece of string joined at the ends on his upheld palms, a single turn being taken over each, and by inserting the middle finger of each hand under the opposite turn, crosses the string from finger to finger in a peculiar form. Another child then takes off the string on his fingers in a rather different way, and it then assumes a second form. A repetition of this man[oe]uvre produces a third form, and so on. Each of these forms has a particular name, from a fancied resemblance to the object--barn-doors, bowling-green, hour-glass, pound, net, fiddle, fish-pond, diamonds, and others.--_Notes and Queries_, vol. xi. p. 421.
7. In cutting, the ace is the lowest card. All must cut from the same pack. If a player exposes more than one card, he must cut again. Drawing cards from the outspread pack may be resorted to in place of cutting. SHUFFLING. 8. Before every deal, the cards must be shuffled. When two packs are used, the dealer’s partner must collect and shuffle the cards for the ensuing deal and place them at his right hand. In all cases the dealer may shuffle last.
=_ Any number from two to six may form the table, and the arrangements for seats, first deal, etc., should be decided as at Bouillotte. _=Stakes.=_ Each player begins with an equal number of counters, the value of which must be determined beforehand. A betting limit should be agreed upon, and one player should be the banker for the evening. _=Blind.=_ Before the cards are dealt, each player deposits one counter in the pool; there is no straddle. _=Dealing.=_ The cards are cut to the left, and dealt to the right, and two cards are given to each player, one at a time, face down. _=Method of Playing.
Players should restrict themselves to the same form of expression throughout, and all bids, even passing, must be made orally and not by gesture. Let us suppose this to be the bidding: The dealer, Z, begins with “One spade,” second player, A, says, “I pass,” or simply, “No.” Third bidder, Y, says, “One club,” fourth player, B, “No trump.” The dealer, starting on the second round, says, “Two clubs,” supporting his partner’s declaration. Next player, A, who passed the first time, says, “Two royals.” Both Y and B pass, but the dealer, Z, says, “Three clubs.” Observe that while three clubs is worth no more than two royals, 18, the club bid offers to win more tricks than the royals and therefore ranks as a higher bid. A doubles three clubs. Y passes and B says, “Two no trumps.” As will be explained presently, doubling does not affect the value of the declaration in bidding, so two no trumps, worth 20, over-calls three clubs.