Jamieson says that the leader had to repeat a rhyme, and if he made a mistake, he in turn became Luggie. The rhyme is not recorded. Luking The West Riding name for Knor and Spell. Playing begins at Easter.--Henderson s _Folk-lore_, p. 84. See Nur and Spell. Mag A game among boys, in which the players throw at a stone set up on edge.--Barnes (_Dorset Glossary_). Magic Whistle All the players but three sit on chairs, or stand in two long rows facing each other.
The proprietors of some fashionable “clubs,” especially at watering places, pretend to be above all such things as cheating at faro, and get indignant at the suggestion of the possibility of there being anything crooked in their establishments. The author has but one reply to all such. If it is true that there is nothing unfair in your game, let me put a type-writer girl in the dealer’s place to shuffle and pull out the cards, and let your men just see to paying and taking bets. The boast of all these fashionable gambling houses is that they never won a man’s money except in a square game. Strange to say, this is generally true, and the explanation is very simple. If you are losing there is no necessity to cheat you, so you lose your money in a square game. If you are winning, it is the bank’s money, and not yours, that they would win if they started to cheat you; and as the dealer is paid to “protect the money of the house,” as they call it, he is perfectly justified in throwing the harpoon into you for a few deals, just to get his own money back; but he is very careful not to cheat you out of any of your own money. You may lose if you like, but you cannot win; faro banks are not run that way. ROUGE ET NOIR, OR TRENTE-ET-QUARANTE. The banker and his assistant, called the croupier, sit opposite each other at the sides of a long table, on each end of which are two large diamonds, one red and the other black, separated by a square space and a triangle.
When a player, not an American leader, begins with a Jack and wins the trick, the adversaries may conclude that his partner had two small cards with the Ace, and had not four trumps and another winning card. When a good player changes his suit, he knows that it will not go round again, or that the command is against him. This is often a valuable hint to the adversaries. When he quits his original suit and leads trumps, without his partner having called, the adversaries may conclude that the suit has been established. When a player puts Ace on his partner’s Jack led, and does not lead trumps, the adversaries may count on him for only one small card of the suit led. When an adversary finesses freely, he may be credited with some strength in trumps. When a player changes his suit, the adversaries should note carefully the fall of the cards in the new suit. As already observed, the leader almost invariably opens the new suit with the best he has. Suppose a player to lead two winning cards in one suit, and then the Eight of another, which the Second Hand wins with the Ten; The four honours in the second suit must be between the Second and Fourth Hands. Having won the first or second round of the adverse suit, and having no good suit of his own, the Second or Fourth Hand may be able to infer a good suit with his partner, by the play.
If there is any dispute about it, the cards should be placed as shown in these diagrams, and if any duplicate is encountered before the run is complete, it cannot be pegged. Take the following examples:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🃒 🃖 🃄 🃅 🂲 🃓 ] There is no sequence, because we encounter a duplicate deuce before we reach the Five. If the last player had a Five to play now, it would make a run of five cards, stopping at the deuce of hearts. Take the following:-- [Illustration: 🂦 🃑 🃅 🃒 🂣 🂤 🃁 🂶 ] There is no sequence; but if the pone had played his Five for his second card, the dealer would have pegged two runs; one of four, and one of six, besides the last card; the pone making one run of five and a pair, as follows:-- [Illustration: 🂦 🃅 🃒 🃑 🂣 🂤 🃁 🂶 ] It will be seen that if the dealer had not played his Ace and kept his Six at the last, the pone would have pegged eleven holes on him, instead of seven. _=Go, and Thirty-one.=_ When a person has no card which he can play without making the total pip value of all the cards played more than 31, he must say to his adversary: “Go.” That is, “Go on and play, for I cannot.” If his adversary has no cards left, the player must say “go” to himself. When a person is told to go, he must play as many cards as he can without passing 31. If he reaches 31 exactly, he scores two points; if he cannot quite reach it, he scores one point for the go.
]; he had the choice of position, and opened the ball. Nevertheless I routed him. I had with me a compact little force of 3 guns, 48 infantry, and 25 horse. My instructions were to clear up the country to the east of Firely Church. We came very speedily into touch. I discovered the enemy advancing upon Hook s Farm and Firely Church, evidently with the intention of holding those two positions and giving me a warm welcome. I have by me a photograph or so of the battlefield and also a little sketch I used upon the field. They will give the intelligent reader a far better idea of the encounter than any so-called fine writing can do. The original advance of the enemy was through the open country behind Firely Church and Hook s Farm; I sighted him between the points marked A A and B B, and his force was divided into two columns, with very little cover or possibility of communication between them if once the intervening ground was under fire. I reckoned about 22 to his left and 50 or 60 to his right.
12. _=Passe.=_ That the number will be from 19 to 36. 13. _=Rouge=_ or _=Noir=_. Red or Black. The foregoing are the payments at Monte Carlo; but wheels with less numbers are scaled down accordingly. The players can bet on the zero if they choose, and they will be paid if it comes up, 35 for 1, but all other bets are lost. In wheels with two zeros, red and black, the bank wins on the colour which does not come, and the bets on the right colour are neither paid nor taken, but must remain until the next turn of the wheel. This is now the practice at Monte Carlo, with the single-zero wheels.
--Halliwell s _Dict._ Draw a Pail of Water [Music] --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). I. Draw a pail of water For my lady s daughter; My father s a king and my mother s a queen, My two little sisters are dressed in green, Stamping grass and parsley, Marigold leaves and daisies. 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.
They wash em in milk And dress em in silk-- We ll all cou don together. My elbow, my elbow, My pitcher and my can; Isn t ---- A nice young gell? Isn t ---- As nice as her-- They shall be married with a guinea-gold ring. I peep d through the window, I peep d through the door, I seed pretty ---- A-dancin on the floor; I cuddled her an fo dled her, I set her on my knee; I says pretty ---- Won t [ëe?] you marry me. A new-swept parlour, An a new-made bed, A new cup and saucer Again we get wed. If it be a boy, he shall have a hat, To follow with his mammy to her na , na , na ; If he be a gell, she shall have a ring, To follow with her mammy to her ding, ding, ding. --Wakefield (Miss Fowler). (_c_) The more general way of playing this game is to form a ring of children simply. The children walk round singing the verse as in the Belfast version, and when the last line is sung, the child whose name is mentioned turns round, facing the outside of the ring and having her back to the centre. She continues to hold hands with the others, and dances round with them in that position. This is repeated until all the children have turned their backs to the inside of the ring.
With three sure tricks, some players make it a rule to play alone, provided the two other cards are both of the same suit. _=MAKING THE TRUMP.=_ When the trump is turned down, the general rule is for the eldest hand to make it next. The exceptions are when he has nothing in the next suit, but has at least two certain tricks in the cross suit, and a probable trick in a plain suit. It is safer to make it next with a weak hand than to cross it on moderate strength, for the presumption is that neither the dealer nor his partner had a bower in the turn-down suit, and therefore have none in the next suit. Such being the case, it is very likely that one or both may be strong in the cross suits, and it is not considered good policy to cross the suit unless so strong in it as to be reasonably certain of three tricks. Some players invariably make it next, regardless of their hands, unless they can play alone in the cross suit. Such a habit exposes them to the common artifice of the dealer’s turning it down for a euchre. A dealer holding a bower and three cards of the next suit, will often turn it down, and trust to the eldest hand making it next, which will give the dealer four trumps instead of two. The eldest hand should be on his guard against this when the dealer’s side has 3 scored.
Their adversaries, sitting East and West, do the same. Each player then slightly shuffles his 13 cards; so as to conceal the order in which they were played, and the four separate hands of 13 cards each are then left on the table, face down; the trump being turned at the dealer’s place. _=TRAYS.=_ When any apparatus is used for holding the cards, such as trays, boxes, or envelopes, each player puts his 13 cards in the compartment provided for them. Each tray has a mark upon it, usually an arrow, showing which end of the tray should point toward a given direction, usually the North. The pocket into which the dealer’s cards go is marked “dealer,” and it is usual to provide a trump slip for each tray. When the hand is first dealt, the trump is recorded on this slip, which travels round the room with the tray. After the dealer has turned up the designated trump, he places the trump slip in the tray, face down. When the play of the hand is finished and the cards replaced in the tray, the dealer puts his trump slip on the top of his cards. The four hands can then be conveniently carried or handed to any other table to be overplayed.
We got two forces of toy soldiers, set out a lumpish Encyclopaedic land upon the carpet, and began to play. We arranged to move in alternate moves: first one moved all his force and then the other; an infantry-man could move one foot at each move, a cavalry-man two, a gun two, and it might fire six shots; and if a man was moved up to touch another man, then we tossed up and decided which man was dead. So we made a game, which was not a good game, but which was very amusing once or twice. The men were packed under the lee of fat volumes, while the guns, animated by a spirit of their own, banged away at any exposed head, or prowled about in search of a shot. Occasionally men came into contact, with remarkable results. Rash is the man who trusts his life to the spin of a coin. One impossible paladin slew in succession nine men and turned defeat to victory, to the extreme exasperation of the strategist who had led those victims to their doom. This inordinate factor of chance eliminated play; the individual freedom of guns turned battles into scandals of crouching concealment; there was too much cover afforded by the books and vast intervals of waiting while the players took aim. And yet there was something about it..
If the single player gives up his game as lost, and lays his cards on the table, the adversaries shall take all such cards and add them to their own, and count their cards to see if they have also made the player schneider. THE REVOKE. 52. Should the single player revoke, and not discover the error before the trick is turned and quitted, he loses his game. If he discovers the error and corrects it in time, there is no penalty; but any adversary who plays after him may amend his play. 53. If either adversary of the player revokes, the player may claim his game as won; but he may insist on playing the hand out to see if he can make schneider or schwarz. Even if the single player has overbid his hand, he wins his game if either adversary revokes. LOOKING BACK. 54.
If the adversaries appear to be very strong, and likely to go out on the deal, all conventionalities should be disregarded until the game is saved; finesses should be refused, and winning cards played Second Hand on the first round. If the adversaries are exhausting the trumps, it will often be judicious for a player to make what winning cards he has, regardless of all rules for leading, especially if they are sufficient to save the game. It often happens that the same cards must be played in different ways according to the state of the score, and the number of tricks in front of the player. A simple example will best explain this. Hearts are trumps; you hold two small ones, two better being out against you, but whether in one hand or not you cannot tell. You have also two winning Spades, one smaller being still out. The game is seven-point whist. The importance of playing to the score will be evident if you consider your play in each of the following instances, your score being given first: Score 6 to 6; you have 5 tricks in front of you. Score 6 to 6; you have 4 tricks in front of you. Score 6 to 5; you have 4 tricks in front of you.
Straight whist is played; the cards being shuffled and cut afresh for every hand. Each deal is a game in itself. _=Drawing for Partners.=_ If there is an equal number of ladies and gentlemen, and the number is less than fifty-two, a sufficient number of red and black cards should be sorted out, and the ladies asked to draw from the red, the men from the black; those getting the same denominations being partners. For instance: 16 couples present themselves for play. The thirteen Hearts and the A 2 3 of Diamonds should be put into one hat for the ladies; the thirteen Clubs, and A 2 3 of Spades being put into another for the men. Those drawing the same denomination of Hearts and Clubs, or of Spades and Diamonds are partners. Before play begins, the number of hands which it is proposed to play should be announced, or a time set for adjournment. _=Driving.=_ There is no rank attached to the tables, but they should be arranged in such a manner that players may know which table to go to next.
The same is true of the four X players; and if there is any difference in the number of tricks taken by the opposing fours, it is supposed to be due to a difference in skill, other matters having been equalised as far as the limitations of the game will permit. The overplay finished, the cards are gathered, shuffled, cut, and dealt afresh, East now having the original lead. It must be remembered that the deal can never be lost, and that no matter what happens, the player whose proper turn it is to deal must do so. _=NUMBERING HANDS.=_ The hands simultaneously played are scored under the same number, but distinguished by the number of the table at which they are first dealt. Each pair of partners in a team play two No. 1 hands, in one of which they are N & S; in the other E & W. _=SCORING.=_ The result of the hand is entered upon the score sheets, which the opposing players at each table should then compare, and turn them face down, leaving them on the table when they change places. Let us suppose the N & S partners of the O team to make 7 tricks at table No.
Draw a bucket of water For my lady s daughter; One go rush, and the other go hush, Pretty young lady, bop under my bush. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). IX. Draw a bucket of water For the farmer s daughter; Give a gold ring and a silver watch, Pray, young lady, pop under. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). X. Draw a bucket of water For my lady s daughter; A guinea gold ring And a silver pin, So pray, my young lady, pop under. --Haydon (Herbert Hardy). XI. Draw a bucket of water To wash my lady s garter; A guinea gold ring And a silver pin, Please, little girl, pop under.
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. In _=Boston=_ and in _=Cayenne=_, two packs must be used; and in Boston there must be no shuffling of either pack after the first deal. 9. A pack must not be shuffled during the play of a hand, nor so as to expose the face of any card.
This diversion is still in part kept up by the young people of the town (Brockett s _North Country Words_). It is also mentioned in Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_, and in Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_. Mr. Tate (_History of Alnwick_) says that a favourite pastime of girls, Keppy ball, deserves a passing notice, because accompanied by a peculiar local song. The name indicates the character of the game; kep is from _cepan_, Anglo-Saxon, kappan, Teut., to catch or capture; for when the game was played at by several, the ball was thrown into the air and kepped, or intercepted, in its descent by one or other of the girls, and it was then thrown up again to be caught by some other. But when the song was sung it was played out by one girl, who sent the ball against a tree and drove it back again as often as she could, saying the following rhymes, in order to divine her matrimonial future:-- Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin and tell to me, The form and the features, the speech and degree Of the man that is my true love to be. Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin and tell to me How many years old I am to be. One a maiden, two a wife, Three a maiden, four a wife, &c. The numbers being continued as long as the ball could be kept rebounding against the tree.
Should he divide it, he must pay the other winner six counters, and leave up seven for a Jack. 24. Should two or more players revoke in the same hand, each must pay the entire losses in the hand, as if he were alone in error; so that if two should revoke, and a third win the pool, he would receive twenty-six counters, instead of thirteen. In Auction Hearts the revoking player must pay the amount of the bid in addition. 25. The claimant of a revoke may search all the tricks at the end of a hand. The revoke is established if the accused player mixes the cards before the claimants have time to examine them. 26. A revoke must be claimed before the tricks have been mixed, preparatory to shuffling for the next deal. 27.
”=_ “J’adoube,” “I adjust,” or words to that effect, cannot protect a player from any of the penalties imposed by these laws, unless the man or men touched, obviously _need_ adjustment, and unless such notification be distinctly uttered _before_ the man, or men, be touched, and only the player whose turn it is to move is allowed so to adjust. The hand having once quitted the man, but for an instant, the move must stand. Men overturned or displaced accidentally may be replaced by either player, without notice. A wilful displacement, or overturning of any of the men, forfeits the game. _=Penalties.=_ Penalties can be enforced only at the time an offence is committed, and before any move is made thereafter. A player touching one of his men, when it is his turn to play, must move it. If it cannot be moved he must move his King. If the King cannot move, no penalty can be enforced. For playing two moves in succession, the adversary may elect which move shall stand.
A different action occurs in other places. It is played by three boys in the following way:--One stands with his back to a wall; the second stoops down with his head against the stomach of the first boy, forming a back; the third jumps on it, and holds up his hand with the fingers distended, saying-- Buck shee, buck shee buck, How many fingers do I hold up? Should the stooper guess correctly, they all change places, and the jumper forms the back. Another and not such a rough way of playing this game is for the guesser to stand with his face towards a wall, keeping his eyes shut.--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 59). In Nairn, Scotland, the game is called Post and Rider. One boy, the Post, takes his stand beside a wall. Another boy stoops down with his head touching the Post s breast. Several other boys stoop down in the same way behind the first boy, all in line. The Rider then leaps on the back of the boy at the end of the row of stooping boys, and from his back to that of the one in front, and so on from back to back till he reaches the boy next the Post.
The penalty for dealing out of turn is two points, if the error is detected in time; otherwise the deal stands good. If the dealer neglects to have the pack cut, exposes a card in dealing, gives too many or too few cards to any player, deals a card incorrectly, and fails to remedy the error before dealing another, or exposes one of his adversary’s cards, the non-dealer scores two points by way of penalty. He also has the option of demanding a fresh deal by the same dealer, or of letting the deal stand. If the error is simply an irregularity in the manner of dealing, or an exposed card, the pone must decide without looking at his cards. If either player has too many or too few cards, the pone may look at the hand dealt him before deciding whether or not to have a fresh deal; but if it is the pone himself that has too many or too few cards, he must discover and announce the error before lifting his cards from the table, or he will not be entitled to the option of letting the deal stand. If the pone has too many cards he may return the surplus to the top of the pack, without showing or naming them. If the dealer has too many, the pone may draw from his hand face downward, returning the surplus to the top of the pack; but the pone may not look at the cards so drawn unless the dealer has seen them. If there are too few cards, and the pone elects to have the deal stand, the deficiency must be supplied from the top of the pack. _=THE CRIB.=_ The cards dealt, each player takes up his six cards and examines them with a view to laying out two cards, face downward, for the crib; leaving himself four cards with which to play.
--Berrington (Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, pp. 519, 520). Another version is that the child in the centre, whilst the others danced around him in a circle, saying, Pig in the middle and can t get out, replies, I ve lost my key but I will get out, and throws the whole weight of his body suddenly on the clasped hands of a couple, to try and unlock them. When he had succeeded he changed the words to, I ve broken your locks, and I have got out. One of the pair whose hands he had opened took his place, and he joined the ring.--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 50). (_b_) Mr. S. O.
Of the first Chambers and Mactaggart practically give the same account. The latter says, Two of the swiftest boys are placed between two doons or places of safety; these, perhaps, are two hundred yards distant. All the other boys stand in one of these places or doons, when the two fleet youths come forward and address them with the rhyme. When out, they run in hopes to get to Babylon or the other doon, but many get not near that place before they are caught by the runners, who taens them, that is, lay their hands upon their heads, when they are not allowed to run any more in that game, that is, until they all be taened or taken. The Norfolk game seems to resemble the Scotch, though in a much less complete form. Miss Matthews describes it as follows:-- A line of children is formed, and the two standing opposite it sing the questions, to which the line reply; then the two start off running in any direction they please, and the others try to catch them. [Illustration: Fig. 1.] [Illustration: Fig. 2.
_=PLAYERS.=_ Skat is played by three persons. If there are four at the table the dealer takes no cards, but shares the fortunes of those who are opposed to the single player, winning and losing on each hand whatever they win and lose. If there are five or six at the table, the dealer gives cards to the two on his left, and the one next him on the right. Those holding no cards share the fortunes of the two who are opposed to the single player. After the table is formed, no one can join the game without the consent of all those already in, and then only after a _=round=_; that is, after each player at the table has had an equal number of deals. Should any player cut into a table during the progress of a game, he must take his seat at the right of the player who dealt the first hand. When six persons offer for play, it is much better to form two tables, but some persons object to playing continuously, and like the rest given to the dealer when more than three play. There are always three active players in Skat. The one who makes the trump is called _=the player=_, or Spieler; the two opposed to him are called the _=adversaries=_, or Gegners; while those who hold no cards are called _=im Skat=_, or Theilnehmer.