A curtsey to you, another to you, If you please will you let the king s horses go through? Yes, but take care of your hindmost man. --Belfast (W. H. Patterson). VII. How many miles to Gandigo? Eighty-eight almost, or quite. Can I [we] get there by candle-light? Yes, if your legs are long and light. Open the gate as high as the sky, And let the king and his queen go by. --Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 230, 231).
=_ The game is usually played for so much a point, the player having won the majority of the tricks receiving the difference between the number of his tricks and those of his adversary. Each game is complete in one hand. In many respects the game resembles single-handed Hearts, except that in Hearts none of the cards drawn are shown. CHINESE WHIST. _=CARDS.=_ Chinese Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing. _=MARKERS.=_ Ordinary whist markers are used for scoring the points. _=PLAYERS.=_ Two, three or four persons can play Chinese Whist.
” If he feels equal to a misère, he calls: “_=Misère=_;” and so on, according to the strength of his hand. If he does not feel justified in making a call, he says “_=I pass=_;” and the next player on his left has the opportunity; and so on, until some player has proposed to do something, or all have passed. If any player has proposed for a partner, any of the others, in their proper turn, may accept him by simply saying “_=I accept=_.” By so doing, a player intimates that he has four probable tricks also, but in the plain suits, and that he is willing to try for eight tricks with the proposer for a partner. All the other calls are made by a single player with the intention of playing against the three others. Any player except the eldest hand having once said, “I pass,” cannot afterwards make or accept any proposal. The eldest hand, after passing once, can accept a proposal, but he cannot make one. It is the custom in some places, when no one will make a proposal of any sort, to turn down the trump, and play the hands without any trump suit, each man for himself, the winner of the last trick losing to each of the others the value of a solo. This is called a _=Grand=_. _=RANK OF THE PROPOSALS.
The last trick turned and quitted may be seen, but no other. _=Irregularities in the Hands.=_ If any player is found to have an incorrect number of cards, it is a misdeal if no bid has been made. If a bid has been made, the deal stands good if three players have their right number of cards. If the first trick has been played to by a person holding too many cards, neither he nor his partner can score anything that hand; but they may play the hand out to save what points they can. If a player has too few cards, there is no penalty, but he should draw from the discard to make up the deficiency, plain-suit cards only being available. _=Exposed Cards.=_ The following are exposed cards, which must be left face up on the table, and are liable to be called by either adversary: 1. Every card faced upon the table otherwise than in the regular course of play. 2.
There is then a tug-of-war, with the Namer and Foolie as the leaders.--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor). In Hants the children stand _vis-à-vis_, as in a country dance. One of the number is sent out of earshot, and the others decide with the Captain as to the name of the bird each wishes to personate. The Captain then calls to the child who is out, Tom Fool, Tom Fool, come home from school, and pick me out a blackbird, cuckoo, or other bird. If Tom Fool is wrong in his guessing after three trials, he is condemned to run the gauntlet, being pelted with gloves or handkerchiefs not too mercifully.--Bitterne, Hants (Miss Byford). In Sussex there is the same action with the following words, but there is no chasing or hitting-- Of all the birds in the air, Of all the fishes in the sea, You can pick me out [ ] If the children fail to do so, they say-- Poor fool, been to school, Learn more in a week; Been there seven years And hasn t learnt a bit.
1712, p. 28, which evinces its high antiquity: Pueros videmus certatim gestientes, testarum in mare jaculationibus ludere. Is lusus est, testam teretem, jactatione fluctuum lævigatam, legere de litore: eam testam plano situ digitis comprehensam, inclinem ipsum atque humilem, quantum potest, super undas irrorare: ut illud jaculum vel dorsum maris raderet, vel enataret, dum leni impetu labitur; vel summis fluctibus tonsis emicaret, emergeret, dum assiduo saltu sublevatur. Is se in pueris victorem ferebat, cujus testa et procurreret longius, et frequentius exsiliret. From this pastime, says Moor, has probably arisen the application of the term to a spendthrift--of whose approaching ruin we should thus speak: Ah, he ave made fine ducks and drakes of a s money, that a have. --_Suffolk Words._ Duckstone A large stone called the Duckstone or Duck-table is placed on the ground, generally with a wall for a background, but this is of little consequence. Several boys take a stone each, and a place pretty near the Duckstone is chosen for home. One of the boys puts his stone on the Duckstone, and he is called the Tenter. He has to guard the home and catch the other boys if he can.
If any player lifts his cards before the dealer has helped all the players, including himself, a misdeal cannot be claimed. _=Objects of the Game.=_ The object in Cassino is to secure certain cards and combinations of cards which count toward game. These are as follows:-- _Points._ The majority of _=Cards=_ taken in. 3 The majority of _=Spades=_ taken in. 1 The Ten of diamonds, _=Big Cassino=_. 2 The deuce of spades, _=Little Cassino=_. 1 The _=Ace=_ of any suit. 1 A _=Sweep=_ of all the cards on the table.
J. Woolhouse (_Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, v. 95) says when the Hood is thrown up by the Chief of the Boggons or by the officials, it becomes the object of the villagers to get the Hood to their own village, the other eleven men, called Boggons, being stationed at the corners and sides of the field, to prevent, if possible, its being thrown out of the field; and should it chance to fall into any of their hands, it is boggoned, and forthwith returned to the chief, who again throws it up, as at the commencement of the game. The next day is occupied by the Boggons going round the villages singing as waits, and they are regaled with hot furmenty; from some they get coppers given them, and from others a small measure of wheat. The day after that they assume the character of Plough-bullocks, and at a certain part of Westwood-side they smoke the Fool --that is, straw is brought by those who like, and piled in a heap, a rope being tied or slung over the branches of the tree next to the pile of straw; the other end of the rope is fastened round the waist of the Fool, and he is drawn up and fire is put to the straw, the Fool being swung to and fro through the smoke until he is well-nigh choked, after which he goes round and collects whatever the spectators choose to give him. The sport is then at an end till the next year. The land left by Lady Mowbray was forty acres, which are known by the name of Hoodlands, and the Boggons dresses and the Hood are made from its proceeds. In the contiguous parish of Epworth a similar game is played under the same name, but with some variations. The Hood is not here carried away from the field, but to certain goals, against which it is struck three times and then declared free. This is called wyking the Hood, which is afterwards thrown up again for a fresh game.
The banker deals again, from the top of the stock, without any further shuffling or cutting of the cards. If the player on the right won the first coup, the banker deals to him again; but if he lost, the banker deals to the next player beyond him; that is, the second from the banker, on his right. The same with the player on the left. If the player on the right or left wins the second coup, the cards are dealt to him again for the third coup; if he loses they are dealt to the next player beyond him, and so on, until all five players have held cards and have lost a coup, after which the banker deals to the one nearest him again. It will thus be seen that there are in each coup only two active players, and that all stakes made upon the game are made upon the result of their hands. _=Suggestions for Playing.=_ In justice to those backing him, the player is supposed to draw or not to draw, according to the laws of probabilities, which are exactly the same as in Vingt-et-un. If he has four points, which would be 5 below 9, he should draw; just as he would if he had 16 at Vingt-et-un, which would be 5 below 21. If he has 5 or more, he should stand; but if he has 5 exactly it is a matter of judgment, drawing a card being sometimes good play, especially if it is likely to lead the banker to overdraw himself. In some clubs there is a law that a player must draw if his point is less than 5, and must stand if it is more than 5, or he must pay a fine.
POLIGNAC. QUATRE-VALETS, OR FOUR JACKS. _=Cards and Players.=_ When Polignac is played by four persons, a Piquet pack is used, and eight cards are dealt to each player, 3-2-3 at a time. When five play, the two black Sevens are deleted, and six cards are given to each player. When six play, each receives five cards. When seven play, the dealer takes no cards. In France, the cards usually rank as in Écarté; K Q J A 10 9 8 7; but in England and America it is more usual to preserve the order in Piquet, A K Q J 10 9 8 7. There is no trump suit. All the preliminaries are settled as at Hearts or Slobberhannes.
_=High Cards Led.=_ When a card higher than a Ten is led on the first round of a suit, the Second Hand has usually nothing to do but to play his lowest card, and make what inference he can as to the probable distribution of the suit. But if he holds the Ace, or cards in sequence with it, such A K, he should cover any card higher than a Ten. If he holds K Q he should cover a J, 10, or 9 led; but it is useless for him to cover an honour with a single honour, unless it is the Ace. _=Low Cards Led.=_ High cards are played by the Second Hand when he has any combination from which he would have led a high one if he had opened the suit. The fact that a player on his right has already laid a small card of the suit on the table should not prevent the Second Hand from making the best use of any combinations he may hold. The only difference between leading from such combinations, and playing them Second Hand, is that in the latter case no attempt is made to indicate to the partner the exact nature of the combination held. The general rule is to win the trick as cheaply as possible, by playing the lowest of the high cards which form the combination from which a high card would be led. Such are the following:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂫 | 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂸 🂱 🂾 🂽 🂳 | 🃞 🃝 🃘 🃔 🃑 🃞 🃕 🃒 | 🃎 🃋 🃊 🃅 🃁 🃍 🃋 🃂 | 🂭 🂫 🂪 🂣 ] The beginner must be careful with these:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂫 🂢 | 🃎 🃍 🃊 🃆 ] The combination which makes the first of these a high-card lead is the A K, and the King must be played Second Hand.
Why didn t you steal a pair? Do you want me to get hung? Then the Mother runs after her, and if she can catch her thrashes her for letting Sunday go. Then the Mother pretends to go out washing again, and the Witch fetches the other days of the week one by one, when the same dialogue is rehearsed.--Dronfield, Derbyshire (S. O. Addy). This game was also played in London. The _dramatis personæ_ were a mother, an eldest daughter, the younger children, a witch, and a pot was represented by another child. The Mother names the children after the days of the week. She tells her eldest daughter that she is going to wash, and that she expects her to take great care of her sisters, and to be sure and not let the old witch take them. She is also to look after the dinner, and be sure and not let the pot boil over.