The only hope for the man who is behind is that he can pick up some of his opponent’s men, setting them back, and in order to do this he must keep behind his adversary, so as to meet as many of his men as possible. This enables us to formulate the great principle of the American game, which is that when a player is ahead he should go ahead as fast as he can; and when he is behind, he should stay behind as long as he can. In the first place he is playing a forward, and in the second place a backward game. _=The Forward Game.=_ The great point in this game, after having obtained the advantage of several good throws in the opening, is to get home as rapidly as possible without unnecessarily exposing your men by leaving blots. Do not take up your adversary’s men if you can help it, because by so doing you place obstacles in your own path, and assist him by allowing him to stay behind, which is just his game. Get past all his men if possible, especially if he has moved his two men out of your home table. _=The Backward Game.=_ Exactly the opposite tactics are of course the best for the player who is behind. He should keep two or three men in his adversary’s home table, preferably on the ace and deuce points, in the hope of catching some of the enemy, and setting them back.
The method used is for both children to grasp the wrist of his left hand with the right, while he lays hold of the right wrist of his companion with his left hand. This way of hoisting or carrying is still used by schoolboys when they desire to honour a boy who has distinguished himself in the playground or schoolroom. See Carry my Lady to London. Kirk the Gussie A sort of play. 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).
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Against the suggestion that the modern game is derived directly from the Romans, is the fact that it is known in countries never traversed or occupied by the Romans. Thus Dr. Clarke, in his _Travels in Russia_, 1810, p. 106, says: In all the villages and towns from Moscow to Woronetz, as in other parts of Russia, are seen boys, girls, and sometimes even old men, playing with the joint-bones of sheep. This game is called Dibbs by the English. It is of very remote antiquity; for I have seen it very beautifully represented on Grecian vases; particularly on a vase in the collection of the late Sir William Hamilton, where a female figure appeared most gracefully delineated kneeling upon one knee, with her right arm extended, the palm downwards, and the bones ranged along the back of her hand and arm. In this manner the Russians play the game. See Dalies, Fivestones. Hummie The game otherwise called Shinty. The shinty or hummie is played by a set of boys in two divisions who attempt to drive with curved sticks a ball, or what is more common, part of the vertebral bone of a sheep, in opposite directions (_Blackwood s Magazine_, August 1821, p.
One would use open trucks and put in a specified number of men--say twelve infantry or five cavalry or half a gun per truck--and permit an engine to draw seven or eight trucks, or move at a reduced speed with more. One could also rule that four men--the same four men--remaining on a line during two moves, could tear up a rail, and eight men in three moves replace it. I will confess I have never yet tried over these more elaborate developments of Little Wars, partly because of the limited time at my disposal, and partly because they all demand a number of players who are well acquainted with the same on each side if they are not to last interminably. The Battle of Hook s Farm (one player a side) took a whole afternoon, and most of my battles have lasted the better part of a day. VI ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE I COULD go on now and tell of battles, copiously. In the memory of the one skirmish I have given I do but taste blood. I would like to go on, to a large, thick book. It would be an agreeable task. Since I am the chief inventor and practiser (so far) of Little Wars, there has fallen to me a disproportionate share of victories. But let me not boast.
_=COUNTERS.=_ As each deal is a complete game in itself it must be settled for in counters, to which some value is usually attached. One player is selected for the banker, and before play begins each of the others purchases from him a certain number of counters, usually fifty. When any player’s supply is exhausted, he can purchase more, either from the banker or from another player. In many places counters are not used, and the value of the game is designated by the coins that take their place. In “penny nap,” English coppers are used in settling; sixpences in “sixpenny nap,” and so on. In America, nickel and quarter nap are the usual forms. _=PLAYERS.=_ Any number from two to six can play; but four is the best game. If five or six play it is usual for the dealer to give himself no cards.
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.
I hate her with an A because she is ( ). I took her to the sign of the ( ), and treated her to ( ). The result was ( ). Mollish s Land Cornish name for Tom Tiddler s Ground. --_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 57. Monday, Tuesday A game played with a ball. There are seven players, who each take a name from one of the days of the week. One (Sunday) begins by throwing the ball against a wall, calling out at the same time the name of one of the days, who has to run and catch it before it falls. If this one fails to catch the ball, the first player picks up the ball and tries to hit one of the six with it, who all endeavour to escape being hit.
In Sixty-Six, the combination known as Bézique, or binocle, is omitted; so is the sequence in trumps. Sixty-four-card Binocle is simply Bézique, with a slight difference in the counting value of the various combinations. Sometimes twelve cards are given to each player. Great confusion seems to have existed when the game of Bézique was introduced to England, in the winter of 1868-9, owing to the fact that so many persons rushed into print with their own private opinions of the rules, which were first given by Dr. Pole, in 1861. No one knew whether “the last trick” was the absolute last, or the last before the stock was exhausted. Whether the highest or lowest cut dealt was also a matter of dispute. “Cavendish” got both these wrong in the first edition of his “Pocket Guide,” but corrected himself without explanation or apology in the second edition. It was then the custom of many players to attach no value to the trump suit until the stock was exhausted; so that until the last eight tricks there was no such thing as trumping a trick in order to win it. Disputes also arose as to counting double combinations, many contending that a double marriage should be as valuable as a double bézique.
With Ace and small cards, the Ace should be played on the Ten. With Queen and small cards the Ten should be passed. When Third Hand plays Queen on a Ten led, it should be a certainty that he has no more of the suit. If he holds A K and only one small card, the King should be played on a Queen led. If he holds Ace and only one small card, the Ace should be played on the Jack led. If Third Hand has four trumps and a card of re-entry, the Ace should be played on Jack led, regardless of number, in older to lead trumps at once, to defend the suit. _=When Partner Leads Low Cards=_, the Third Hand should do his best to secure the trick. If he has several cards of equal trick-taking value, such as A K Q, or K Q J, he should win the trick as cheaply as possible. The only _=finesse=_ permitted to the Third Hand in his partner’s suit, is the play of the Queen, when he holds A Q and others; the odds being against Fourth Hand having the King. _=Foster’s Eleven Rule.
_=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The player on the dealer’s left begins by leading any card he chooses, and the others must all follow suit if they can. Failure to follow suit when able is a revoke, the penalty for which, if detected and claimed by the adversaries, is the immediate loss of the game. When there are more than two players or two sets of partners, the revoking player or side must pay the two or more adversaries as if each had won the game. In some places the individual is made to pay, not the side. This should be understood before play begins. If seven are playing, and one is detected in a revoke, his loss is equal to six games. Any player having none of the suit led may either trump or discard. The dealer should take up the trump card when it is his turn to play to his first trick; after which it must not be named, although a player may be informed what the trump suit is. If all follow suit, the highest card played of the suit led wins the trick, trumps win all other suits.
|us. |us. | | 8.|For we are going a- | -- |For we are lads a | | |roving. | |roving. | | 9.|We ll take this maid | -- |We ll take this pretty| | |by the hand. | | fair maid by the | | | | |hand. | | 10.| -- | -- | -- | | 11.
(Miss M. Peacock). See Who goes round my Stone Wall? Level-coil Nares, in his _Glossary_, says this is a game of which we seem to know no more than that the loser in it was to give up his place to be occupied by another. Minshew gives it thus: To play at _levell coil_, G. jouer à cul levé: _i.e._, to play and lift up your taile when you have lost the game, and let another sit down in your place. Coles, in his _English Dictionary_, seems to derive it from the Italian _leva il culo_, and calls it also Pitch-buttock. In his _Latin Dictionary_ he has _level-coil_, alternation, cession; and to play at _level coil_, vices ludendi præbere. Skinner is a little more particular and says, Vox tesseris globulosis ludentium propria: an expression belonging to a game played with little round tesseræ.
_=Leading Out of Turn.=_ If a player leads when it was his partner’s turn, the partner may be called upon by his right-hand adversary to lead or not to lead a trump; but a specified plain suit cannot be called. If it was the turn of neither of the side in error to lead, the card played in error is simply exposed. If all have played to the false lead, the error cannot be rectified. If all have not followed, the cards played to the false lead may be taken back, and are not liable to be called. _=Playing Out of Turn.=_ If the third hand plays before the second, the fourth may play before the second also; either of his own volition, or by the direction of the second hand, who may say: “Play, partner.” If the fourth hand plays before the second, the third hand not having played, the trick may be claimed by the adversaries, no matter who actually wins it; but the actual winner of it must lead for the next trick. If any player abandons his hand, the cards in it may be claimed as exposed, and called by the adversaries. _=The Revoke.
Blue? Blue is for the sailors, sailors, sailors, Blue is for the sailors, and that won t do. Pink? Pink is for the babies, babies, babies, Pink is for the babies, and that won t do. White? White is for a wedding, a wedding, a wedding, White is for a wedding, and that won t do. Black? Black is for the mourners, mourners, mourners, Black is for the mourners, and that will do. Poor Jenny Jones is dead, dead, dead, Poor Jenny Jones is dead, and lies in her grave. --Southampton (from nursemaid of Mrs. W. R. Carse). VIII.
King and Queen against two Rooks. King and Queen against King and two Bishops. King and Rook against King, Rook and Pawn. King and Rook against King and Bishop. King and Rook against King and Knight. 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.