Twelve deals is a game, at the end of which the players cut to decide which shall go out, as at Whist. It is usual to count the deals by opening the blade of a pocket-knife, which is placed on the table by the player on the dealer’s right. When it comes to his turn to deal, he partly opens one blade. When he deals again he opens it entirely, and the third time he closes it; that being the third round, and the last deal of the game. [Illustration: FOURTH DEAL. EIGHTH DEAL.] _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at Boston are distinguished by the letters A Y B Z. [Illustration: Y +-------+ | | A| |B | | +-------+ Z ] Z is the dealer, and A is known as the _=eldest hand=_. There are no partnerships in Boston, except that of three players combined against the fourth, who is always spoken of as _=the caller=_.
Should any player increase the ante to such an extent that none of the others care to call him, they must of course throw down their hands, and as there is no one to play against him, the one who made the last increase in the ante takes down all the counters in the pool. This is called _=taking the pot=_, and the cards are gathered, shuffled, and dealt again, the deal passing to the player who was the age. _=DRAWING CARDS.=_ All those who have made the ante good have the privilege of discarding, face downward, as many cards as they please, in the place of which they may draw others. The age has the first draw, and can take any number of cards from one to five, or he may _=stand pat=_, refusing to draw any. A player cannot receive from the dealer more or less cards than he discards; so that if a person is allowed to play with a short hand, of four cards only, he will still have only four cards after the draw. If his hand was foul, it will remain so after the draw. In drawing, a player may keep or discard what cards he pleases. There is no rule to prevent his throwing away a pair of aces and keeping three clubs if he is so inclined; but the general practice is for the player to retain whatever pairs or triplets he may have, and to draw to them. Four cards of a straight or a flush may be drawn to in the same way, and some make a practice of drawing to one or two high cards, such as an ace and a king, when they have no other chance.
One can knit and one can sow [sew], One can make a lily-white bow. Please take one in. When all the children have been taken in, the Old Woman says-- There was an old woman from Sandiland With no children by the hand. Will you give me one? --Ballynascaw School, co. Down (Miss C. N. Patterson). (_b_) The first Dorsetshire game is played as follows:--Two girls are chosen, the one to represent a lady and the other a mother, who is supposed to be taking her children out to service. She has one or more of them in each hand, and leads them up to the lady, saying or singing the first verse. The dialogue then proceeds, and the verse is repeated until all the children are similarly disposed of.
The Gussie is a large ball, which one party endeavours to beat with clubs into a hole, while another party strives to drive it away. When the ball is lodged in the hole it is said to be Kirkit. --Jamieson. Kiss in the Ring [Music] --Nottingham (Miss Youngman). [Music] --Lancashire (Mrs. Harley). [Music] --Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy). I.
The detention of the fiery cross through neglect or other impediment was regarded with much dread by the inhabitants of the place in which it should occur. This subject is discussed in _Gomme s Primitive Folkmoots_, p. 279 _et seq._ Jack, Jack, the Bread s a-burning Jack, Jack, the bread s a-burning, All to a cinder; If you don t come and fetch it out We ll throw it through the winder. These lines are chanted by players that stand thus. One places his back against a wall, tree, &c., grasping another, whose back is toward him, round the waist; the second grasps a third, and so on. The player called Jack walks apart until the conclusion of the lines. Then he goes to the others and pokes at or pats them, saying, I don t think you re done yet, and walks away again. The chant is repeated, and when he is satisfied that the bread is done he endeavours to pull the foremost from the grasp of the others, &c.
The tune sung is the same as the Mulberry Bush. Miss Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_) says the Cushion Dance is still continued, with some variations, and generally closes the evening s amusements. One of the young men endeavours secretly to bring in a cushion, and locks the doors, to prevent the escape of the young maidens; then all the party unite hands and dance round three times to the left and three times to the right, after which the company all seat themselves, except the young man who holds the cushion. He advances to the fiddler, and says-- This dance it will no further go. Fiddler: Why say you so? why say you so? Cushion-holder: Because the young women will not come to. Fiddler: They must come to, they shall come to, And tell them I say so. The cushion-holder then goes to the girl he fancies most, and drops the cushion at her feet. She kneels down with him on the cushion, and he salutes her, and they then rise and dance round and round to the fiddler. The girls then go through the same thing, saying, young men, and then a young man, &c., until the whole company have gone through the same ceremony, which concludes with all dancing round three times, as at the commencement.
III. Only two honours, they do not score. 4. Those players who, at the commencement of a deal, are at the score of four, cannot score honours. 5. The penalty for a revoke (_see_ Law 72) takes precedence of all other scores. Tricks score next. Honours last. 6. Honours, unless claimed before the trump card of the following deal is turned up, cannot be scored.
Beginning with the eldest hand, each player sorts her cards into pairs of the same denomination; such as two Fives, two Jacks, etc., and all pairs so formed are laid upon the table face down, without showing them to the other players. All the cards laid out in this manner are left in front of the player, in order to discover errors, if any. Three of a kind cannot be discarded, but four of a kind may be considered as two pairs. The discarding of pairs complete, the dealer begins by spreading her remaining cards like a fan, and presenting them, face downward, to her left-hand neighbour, who must draw one card at random. The card so drawn is examined, and if it completes a pair, the two cards are discarded. Whether it forms a pair or not, the player’s cards are spread and presented to the next player on the left, to be drawn from in the same manner. This process of drawing, forming pairs, and discarding is continued until it is found that one player remains with one card. This card is of course the odd Queen, and the unfortunate holder of it is the Old Maid; but only for that deal. LIFT SMOKE.
=_ Many players will not lead a long weak suit unless they have sufficient strength to justify them in hoping to establish, defend, and bring it in, with _=reasonable=_ support from the partner. With a long suit, headed by a single honour, weak trumps, and no cards of re-entry, they prefer selecting a strengthening card for the original lead, hoping it may be of some assistance to partner by affording a successful finesse. It is claimed that it is better for a person, especially with a strong hand, to play with the knowledge that his partner is weak, than under the impression that he may be strong. Such an opening lead should warn the Third Hand to finesse deeply, to hold any tenaces he may have, and to let nothing pass him which might be too much for his weak partner to attend to. This is a very difficult game to play well, and is seldom resorted to except by the most expert. _=Deschapelles Coups.=_ It often happens that after the adverse trumps are exhausted, a player will find himself with the lead, but unable to give his partner a card of his established suit. In such cases the best course is to sacrifice the King or Queen of any suit of which he has not the Ace, in the hope that it may force the best of the suit, and leave partner with a card of re-entry. For instance: The leader has established the Club suit; his partner has exhausted the trumps, Hearts; and having no Clubs, leads the King of Spades from K x x x. If the holder of the Club suit has Spade Queen, and the King forces the Ace, the Club suit will be brought in.
The Arabs seem to have learned the game, and taken it to Mecca and Medina, afterward passing it along to Syria and the Byzantines, sometime during the seventh century. Disbanded body-guards of the Byzantine emperors carried it to Scandinavia and the North, while it was gradually spreading over Europe by way of the Bosphoros and the Danube. _=Draughts=_, or _=Checkers=_, is sometimes claimed to be an older game than Chess: but it is much more probable that both are developments of some still older game, all trace of which is lost. In Egypt and Nubia there are illustrations of persons playing at draughts twenty centuries before the Christian era. During recent explorations in Egypt quite a variety of draughtmen have been found, some of which were used during the reign of Rameses III. The usual form seems to have been circular, about an inch in diameter, and surmounted by a round knob, something like a chess pawn, so that the men could be easily picked up. From the manner in which the men are shown mixed upon the board, it is evident that they could not move or take backwards, as in Polish draughts, but whether they advanced diagonally, as at the present day, there is no evidence to show. The Japanese game of draughts has lately been revived in England and America under the name of Go-Bang, but as it requires a special board of 324 squares, it has never been popular. _=Backgammon=_ cannot be traced to its origin. Several authorities have fallen into the error of ascribing the game to a certain country because the name is derived from a certain language, forgetting that in ancient times every country invented its own names for games.
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 winning declaration settled, whether doubled or not, the player on the left of the declarer leads for the first trick, and dummy’s cards go down, the declarer playing the combined hands. The declarer gathers the tricks for his side, but either adversary may gather for the other. The first six tricks taken by the declarer make a book, and all over the book count toward his contract.
|blackbird. | | | 19.| -- | -- |For a pretty girl. | | 20.| -- | -- |You shall have a | | | | |drake. | | 21.| -- | -- | -- | | 22.| -- | -- | -- | | 23.| -- |All sorts of colours | -- | | | |lying by his side. | | |[8.