The number of pips in each suit may be easily remembered by observing that the ace suit has the same number of pips as the pieces in the set, 28; and that each suit above the ace has seven pips more than the number of pieces in the set, while the blank suit has seven pips less, so that each suit progresses in regular order, seven pips at a time, as shown in the margin. Blank 21 Ace 28 Deuce 35 Trey 42 Four 49 Five 56 Six 63 _=Shuffling and Cutting.=_ Dominoes are provided with a small brass pin in the centre of the face, which enables one to spin them round, push them about on the table, and so to shuffle them thoroughly. There are three methods of determining who shall have the first play, or _=set=_, as it is called: _=1.=_ The player having the higher double; or, failing any double in either hand, the _=heavier=_ domino, that is, one with a greater number of pips on its face than any held by his adversary. _=2.=_ One player selects any two dominoes, face down, and pushes them toward his adversary, who chooses one. Both are then turned up, and whichever gets the lighter domino has the first set. _=3.=_ Each player draws a domino, face down, and the one getting the lower double sets first.
If one player held these cards [Illustration: š š« š± šŗ š· ] and wished to make hearts trumps, he would be playing āwith two.ā If another player wished to make the same suit trumps with these cards:-- [Illustration: š» š š¾ š½ š¹ šø ] he would be playing āwithout two,ā and the value of each game would be exactly the same, no matter which player actually made the trump. Matadores must be held; they do not count if won from the adversaries in the course of play. _=MARKERS.=_ Counters of any kind are not used in Skat, as the score is kept on a writing pad, which should be ruled into vertical columns for the number of players engaged. _=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.
King and Rook against King, Rook and Bishop. The following games can be _=won=_:-- King and Queen, or King and Rook, against a King. King and Queen against King and Rook. King and Queen against King and Bishop. King and Queen against King and Knight. King and Queen against King and Pawn. King and two Rooks against King and Rook. King and two Bishops against a King. King Bishop and Knight against a King. In order to master all these endings, the student should take up Stauntonās Handbook, or the Lehrbuch des Schachspiels, in which they are given very fully.
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.
There are only two possible events, to win or lose, and both are equally probable, so 2 is the denominator of our fraction. The number of favourable events is 1, which is our numerator, and the fraction is therefore Ā½, which always represents equality. Now for the successive events. Your man wins the first game, and they proceed to play another. What are the odds on Smithās winning the second game? It is evident that they are exactly the same as if the first game had never been played, because there are still only two possible events, and one of them will be favourable to him. Suppose he wins that game, and the next, and the next, and so on until he has won nine games in succession, what are the odds against his winning the tenth also? Still exactly an even thing. But, says a spectator, Smithās luck must change; because it is very improbable that he will win ten games in succession. The odds against such a thing are 1023 to 1, and the more he wins the more probable it is that he will lose the next game. This is what gamblers call the _=maturity of the chances=_, and it is one of the greatest fallacies ever entertained by intelligent men. Curiously enough, the men who believe that luck must change in some circumstances, also believe in betting on it to continue in others.
[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=_. The players having once taken their seats are not allowed to change them without the consent of all the others at the table. _=DEALING.=_ At the beginning of the game the two packs are thoroughly shuffled; after which they must not again be shuffled during the progress of the game. If a hand is dealt and not played, each player must sort his cards into suits and sequences before they are gathered and dealt again. At the beginning of each deal, one pack is presented to the players to be cut; each having the privilege of cutting once, the dealer last. Beginning on his left, the dealer gives four cards to each player, then four more, and finally five; no trump being turned. The general rules with regard to irregularities in the deal are the same as at Whist, except that a misdeal does not lose the deal. The misdealer must deal again with the same pack, after the players have sorted their cards into suits.
If he calls, he does so by placing in the pool an amount equal to that staked by the last player, and it then becomes the turn of the next player on the left to say what he will do. But if he goes better, he adds to the amount staked by the player on his right any further sum he sees fit, within the limit of two blues. Each player in turn has the same privilege, the age having the last say. Suppose five play, and that A has the age. B has straddled, and all but the dealer have made good the ante and drawn cards. There are sixteen white counters in the pool, Bās straddle having made the ante four instead of two. Suppose B bets a red counter, and C then throws down his hand. D _=sees=_ B, by putting up a red counter; and he then _=raises=_ him, by putting up two blues, increasing his bet as much as the limit will allow him. The age must now abandon his hand or put up one red and two blues to call D, without knowing what B proposes to do. Let us suppose he sees D, and raises another two blues.
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Yet it had cut him like a knife. What did she think he was--a fool, a loafer, a uniformed nonentity? Didn t she know that for every half hour of pinlighting, he got a minimum of two months recuperation in the hospital? By now the set was warm. He felt the squares of space around him, sensed himself at the middle of an immense grid, a cubic grid, full of nothing. Out in that nothingness, he could sense the hollow aching horror of space itself and could feel the terrible anxiety which his mind encountered whenever it met the faintest trace of inert dust. As he relaxed, the comforting solidity of the Sun, the clock-work of the familiar planets and the Moon rang in on him. Our own solar system was as charming and as simple as an ancient cuckoo clock filled with familiar ticking and with reassuring noises. The odd little moons of Mars swung around their planet like frantic mice, yet their regularity was itself an assurance that all was well. Far above the plane of the ecliptic, he could feel half a ton of dust more or less drifting outside the lanes of human travel. Here there was nothing to fight, nothing to challenge the mind, to tear the living soul out of a body with its roots dripping in effluvium as tangible as blood. Nothing ever moved in on the Solar System.
The owner of the forfeit must then perform the penance before the other players, and then another forfeit is cried. The more general penances imposed upon the owners of the forfeits are as follows, but the list could be very much extended:-- Bite an inch off the poker. Kneel to the prettiest, bow to the wittiest, and kiss the one you love best. Stand in each corner of the room, sigh in one, cry in another, sing in another, and dance in the other. Put yourself through the keyhole. Place two chairs in the middle of the room, take off your shoes, and jump over them. Measure so many yards of love ribbon. Postman s knock. Crawl up the chimney. Spell Opportunity.
It is to be noted that it was a popular belief in ancient times that to wed with a rush-ring was a legal marriage, without the intervention of a priest or the ceremonies of marriage. Poore, Bishop of Salisbury (circa 1217), prohibited the use of them-- With gaudy girlonds or fresh flowers dight About her necke, or rings of rushes plight. --Spenser s _Queen_. And Shakespeare alludes to the custom in the lines-- As fit as ten groats for the hand of an attorney, as Tib s rush for Tom s forefinger. --_All s Well that Ends Well._ The rejoicing and bestowal of the blessing by the ring of friends give an almost complete picture of early Scotch marriage custom. A version of this game, which appeared in the _Weekly Scotsman_ of October 16, 1893, by Edgar L. Wakeman, is interesting, as it confirms the above idea, and adds one or two details which may be important, _i.e._, the choose your maidens one by one, and sweep the house till the bride comes home.
_=Fosterās System=_ of playing two pairs at one table, which was used at all the matches for the Utica Trophy, in which one pair from a club challenged the pair that held the trophy for another club, consisted in having an umpire to transpose the suits between the original and the overplay of the deals. The trays containing the hands were sent in to the umpireās room, and he had an extra pack of cards, from which he duplicated each hand of thirteen cards as he took it out of the pocket to which it belonged, but changed the suits, making clubs trumps instead of hearts, etc. This system was found to do away with the memory part of the game, it being very difficult to recognize a hand unless it had some startling feature. Coupled with the present practice of throwing out all hands in which there is found to be a suit of more than six cards, and dealing it over again, Fosterās system for two pairs is the best so far suggested. _=Eight Individuals.=_ This form of contest is seldom used, because players dislike the continual changing of position, and the delay in arriving at the results of the score. It would require seven sets to exhaust the combinations; and at each table two hands should be dealt, played, and exchanged with the other table in the set, before the players change positions. This would require 28 hands to complete the match. _=Saffordās System=_ for arranging the players is to have indicator cards on the tables:-- [Illustration: N N +---------+ +---------+ | 4 | | 3 | W|8 7|E W|1 5|E | 6 | | 2 | +---------+ +---------+ S S ] The players take their seats in any order for the first set; after which they go to the next higher number; 8 keeping his seat, and 7 going to 1. _=Scoring.
Heading a Trick, playing a better card than any already played to the trick, but not necessarily the best in the hand. Heeled Bets, bets at Faro which play one card to win and another to lose, but do not win or lose double the amount if both events come on the same turn. Hinterhand, G., the last player on the first trick, (Skat). His Heels, the Jack turned up for a starter at Cribbage. His Nobs, Jack of the same suit as the starter at Cribbage. Hoc, or Hockelty, the last card in the box at Faro. Honours, usually the highest cards in the suit, such as A K Q J, and sometimes the 10. In Calabrasella the 3 and 2 are honours, and in ImpƩrial the lowest card is an honour. Horse and Horse, each player having one game to his credit when they are playing best two out of three.
The selected one is refused by her party unless some one from the opposite side can effect her capture by a contest of strength. In all versions but two or three this contest takes place between the two; in one or two all the players join in the trial of strength. In another instance there appears to be no contest, but the selected player crosses over to the opposite side. Two important incidents occur in the Bocking and Symondsbury versions. In the Bocking game the side which is victorious has the right to begin the next game first: this also occurs in the Barnes version. In Symondsbury, when one child is drawn over the boundary line by one from the opposite side she has to be crowned immediately. This is done by the conqueror putting her hand on the captured one s head. If this is not done at once the captured one is at liberty to return to her own side. In some versions (Shropshire and London) the player who is selected for Nuts is always captured by the one sent to fetch her. Some Barnes children also say that this is the proper way to play.
Buck, Buck A boy stoops so that his arms rest on a table; another boy sits on him as he would on a horse. He then holds up (say) three fingers, and says-- Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up? The stooping boy guesses, and if he says a wrong number the other says-- [Two] you say and three there be; Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up? When the stooping boy guesses rightly the other says-- [Four] you say and [four] there be; Buck, buck, rise up. The boy then gets off and stoops for the other one to mount, and the game is played again.--London (J. P. Emslie). Similar action accompanies the following rhyme:-- Inkum, jinkum, Jeremy buck, Yamdy horns do au cock up? Two thĆ sĆØs, and three there is, Au ll lea n thee to la ke at Inkum. --Almondbury (Easther s _Glossary_). 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.