While he was still searching, he caught the warning from her. _We jump again!_ And so they had. The ship had moved to a second planoform. The stars were different. The Sun was immeasurably far behind. Even the nearest stars were barely in contact. This was good Dragon country, this open, nasty, hollow kind of space. He reached farther, faster, sensing and looking for danger, ready to fling the Lady May at danger wherever he found it. Terror blazed up in his mind, so sharp, so clear, that it came through as a physical wrench. The little girl named West had found something--something immense, long, black, sharp, greedy, horrific.
_=Objects of the Game.=_ As in Seven-up, the object of each player is to get rid of his seven counters, one of which he is entitled to put in the pool for each of the following points: For holding the _=highest=_ trump in play; for holding (having dealt to him) the _=lowest=_ trump in play; for winning a trick with the _=Jack=_ of trumps in it; for making the greatest number of the pips that count for the _=game=_ point. The details of these points have already been explained in connection with Seven-up. If the count for Game is a tie, no one scores it. _=Bidding.=_ The eldest hand sells. If he pitches without waiting for a bid he must make four points, or he will be set back that number. Each player in turn, beginning on the left of the eldest hand, bids for the privilege of pitching the trump, naming the number of points he thinks he can make. If he will not bid, he must say distinctly: “_=I pass=_.” After a bid has been made, any following player must bid higher or pass.
Properly speaking, Poker is not the founder, but simply the most famous representative of a very ancient and always very popular family of games, all of which can be traced to one source, the old French game of Gilet, which was undoubtedly of Italian origin, perhaps a variety of Primero. Gilet we find changed to Brelan in the time of Charles IX., and although Brelan is no longer played, the word is still used in all French games to signify triplets, and “brelan-carré” is the common French term for four of a kind in _le poker Américain_. From Brelan we trace the French games of Bouillotte, and Ambigu, and the English game of Brag; but the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of _as nas_. The peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of Poker we find well described by Seymour, in his chapter on “Brag,” in the “Court Gamester,” 1719: “The endeavour to impose on the judgment of the rest who play, and particularly on the person who chiefly offers to oppose you, by boasting or bragging of the cards in your hand. Those who by fashioning their looks and gestures, can give a proper air to their actions, as will so deceive an unskilful antagonist, that sometimes a pair of fives, trays or deuces, in such a hand, with the advantage of his composed countenance, and subtle manner of over-awing the other, shall out-brag a much greater hand, and win the stakes, with great applause and laughter on his side from the whole company.” Quite a number of card games retain the feature of pairs, triplets, sequences, and flushes, but omit the element of brag or bluff, and can therefore hardly be considered full-blooded members of the poker family. Whiskey Poker, for instance, has really little or nothing in common with the true spirit of poker, and is simply the very ancient game of Commerce, played with five cards instead of three. The descriptions of this game in the earliest Hoyles betray its French origin; particularly in the use of the piquet pack; the French custom of cutting to the left and dealing to the right; and the use of the words “brelan,” and “tricon.” In later descriptions of the “new form” of Commerce, about 1835, we find 52 cards are used, and dealt from left to right, and the names of the combinations are changed to “pairs-royal,” “sequences,” and “flushes.
Any card named by the player holding it. The adversary on the right of an exposed card must call it before he plays himself. If it will be the turn of the player holding the exposed card to lead for the next trick, the card, if wanted, must be called before the current trick is turned and quitted. Should a player having the lead, and an exposed card in front of him, play before the previous trick is turned and quitted, the card so led may also be claimed as exposed. If a trump is exposed after the trump suit has been named, the adversaries may prevent the playing of such a card; but the holder of it is not liable to any penalty for a revoke under such circumstances. _=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.
What shall we lay her in, lay her in, lay her in? What shall we lay her in? Shall it be black? Black is for mourners, mourners, mourners, Black is for mourners, and that won t do. Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. What shall we lay her in, lay her in, lay her in? What shall we lay her in? Shall it be white? White s what the dead wear, dead wear, dead wear, White s what the dead wear, and that will just do. --Hanwell, Middlesex, 1878 (A. B. Gomme). VII. We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, how is she to-day? Poor Jenny is washing, washing, washing, Poor Jenny is washing, washing hard to-day. What time can we see her? At one o clock. (Clock strikes one.
| | |green. | | | | 7.|The fairest damsel | -- | -- | | |ever seen. | | | | 8.| -- |The fairest young lady| -- | | | |ever seen. | | | 9.| -- | -- |All pretty maids are | | | | |plain to be seen. | |10.| -- | -- | -- | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.
[Illustration: _=First Position.=_ Black to move and win. WHITE. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ⛀ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | ⛂ | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ⛂ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛁ | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ BLACK. ] [Illustration: _=Second Position.=_ Black to move and win. WHITE. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | ⛀ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛀ | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛁ | | | | ⛂ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | ⛂ | | | | ⛃ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ BLACK. ] [Illustration: _=Third Position.=_ Either to move; White to win.
55) prints words and tune of a song which is very similar to that ballad, and he mentions the fact that he has seen it played as a round by the Arabs of the street. He considers it to be an old English song which has been fitted for a ring game by the addition of a verse. See Lady on Yonder Hill. Lady on Yonder Hill I. Yonder stands a lovely lady, Whom she be I do not know; I ll go court her for my beauty, Whether she say me yea or nay. Madam, to thee I humbly bow and bend. Sir, I take thee not to be my friend. Oh, if the good fairy doesn t come I shall die. --Derbyshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, i. 387).
A player cutting the Joker must cut again. _=COUNTERS=_ or whist markers may be used for keeping the score, but it is much more common to use the small cards from the deleted portion of the pack. The game is five points, and the best method of scoring is to use the 4 and 3 of any suit. When the 3 is face up, but covered by the 4 face down, it counts _=one=_. When the 4 is face up, covered by the 3 face down, it counts _=two=_. When the 4 is face down, covered by the 3 face up, it counts _=three=_. When the 3 is face down, covered by the 4 face up, it counts _=four=_. [Illustration: [🃓 covered by [🃔 covered by [🃓 covering a [🃔 covering a facedown card] facedown card] facedown card] facedown card] ONE. TWO. THREE.
T. Micklethwaite, this game is described, and diagrams of the game given which had been found by him cut in a stone bench in the church of Ardeley, Hertfordshire, and elsewhere. He has also seen the game played in London. It is evidently the same game as described by Nares and Moor above. See Bridgeboard, Nine Men s Morris. Nine Men s Morris In the East Riding this game is played thus: A flat piece of wood about eight inches square is taken, and on it twenty-four holes are bored by means of a hot skewer or piece of hot iron. [Illustration: Fig. 1.] Each of the two players has nine wooden pegs, which are either coloured or shaped differently, and the object of each player is to get three of his own pegs in a straight line (fig. 1).
[Music] --London (A. B. Gomme). [Music] --Congleton (Miss A. E. Twemlow). I. A dis, a dis, a green grass, A dis, a dis, a dis; Come all you pretty fair maids And dance along with us. For we are going roving, A roving in this land; We ll take this pretty fair maid, We ll take her by the hand. Ye shall get a duke, my dear, And ye shall get a drake; And ye shall get a young prince, A young prince for your sake.
17. The tune of the Platt version sent by Miss Burne, and the Ogbourne and Manton (H. S. May), are almost identical, except the termination. This seems to be the most general tune for the game. The Lancashire tune is the same as the London version. Miss Burne says of the Madeley version: I never knew Green Gravel and Wallflowers played together as in this way elsewhere (I had not got this variant when I wrote _Shropshire Folk-lore_), except at Much Wenlock, where they reverse the two verses, and only sing _one line_ (the last) of Green Gravel. But I feel sure they must have been _meant_ to go together (see my note in _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 510), and I can explain them, I think. The ring of girls are dancing on the green grass plot in the middle of an old-fashioned sixteenth-century walled garden: each gets the news of her lover s death, and turns her face to the wall, the old token of hopeless sorrow.
If the player will not exchange, he must _=knock=_ on the table, to signify that he will stand by the cards he has. If he exchanges, he takes up the offered card, and then has the privilege of trading for ready money or for barter himself. The trading goes on in this way round and round, until some player knocks, when all trading is immediately stopped, and the hands are shown. The best hand wins the pool, the rank of the various combinations being as follows, beginning with the highest:-- _=Triplets.=_ Three aces being the highest, and three deuces the lowest. Pairs have no value. _=Sequence Flushes=_; the ace being allowed to rank as the top or the bottom; Q K A, or A 2 3. _=The Point=_; the greatest number of pips on two or three cards of the same suit in one hand, counting the ace for eleven, and the other court-cards for ten each. A single card of a suit does not count for the point. In case of ties, a point made with three cards will beat one made with two cards.
What had her Hegira been like? In what frightful places had she found herself welcome? From her talk, it could have been an Ozark backwater. I didn t want to know what backwoods crone had taught her some mnemonic rendition of the Devil s Litany. Her hands passed up beyond my shoulder, to my neck. It s in yore haid, she said. In yore darlin haid! Fingers worked over my scalp. Oh, there! she gasped. Hit s ahurtin me! Hurtin , hurtin , and I m a draggin it off n yuh! Her backwoods twang sharpened as she aped some contemporary witch. Hurt? She didn t know what it meant. She fired a charge of thermite in my head, and it seared its way down my arm to my fingers. My right arm came off the bed and thrashed like a wounded snake.
Each of these has a secret name. The other players form themselves into a line by clasping each other round the waist from behind. They go up to the two that form the gate, and the leader asks the first question, as in version No. 2. The dialogue then proceeds to the end. The two then lift their arms as high as they can, still joined, and the line of players passes through. All at once the two bring their arms down on one and make him (or her) prisoner. The prisoner is asked in a whisper, so as not to disclose the secret name, which of the two is to be chosen. The one so captured takes his (or her) stand behind the one chosen. The same process is gone through till all the players are taken captive, and have stationed themselves behind the one or the other of the two forming the gate.