This game may be compared with the game of King Arthur mentioned by Brand (_Pop. Antiq._, ii. 393). Father s Fiddle This is a boys game. One boy says to another, Divv (do) ye ken (know) aboot my father s fiddle? On replying that he does not, the questioner takes hold of the other s right hand with his left, and stretches out the arm. With his right hand he touches the arm gently above the elbow, and says, My father had a fiddle, an he brook (broke) it here, an he brook it here (touching it below the elbow), an he brook it throw the middle, and comes down with a sharp stroke on the elbow-joint.--Keith, Fochabers (Rev. W. Gregor).
All the nuts knocked down are the property of the pitcher. Alluding to the first described form, he says it is probably a more modern game, and quotes Cotgrave _sub voce_ Chastelet as authority for the earlier form in the way he describes it (_Dictionary_). Addy says the nuts were hardened for the purpose. When a nut was broken it was said to be cobbered or cobbled (_Sheffield Glossary_). Evans _Leicestershire Glossary_ also describes it. Darlington (_South Cheshire Words_) says this game only differs from Cobblety-cuts in the use of small nuts instead of chestnuts. George Eliot in _Adam Bede_ has, Gathering the large unripe nuts to play at Cob-nut with (p. 30). Britton s _Beauties of Wiltshire_ gives the Isle of Wight and Hants as other places where the game is known. See Conquerors.
If a player cannot propose, he says: “Je passe,” and each of the others in turn from right to left have the opportunity to make a proposal. When any player proposes, any player in turn after him may accept, although such a one may have already passed. If the fourth player proposes, the three others having passed, and no one will accept him he is bound to play solo against three such weak adversaries, and must make five tricks, either in belle or in petite. He is not allowed to play in a plain suit if he has made a simple “demand.” The only solo bids allowed are those for six, eight, or nine tricks, which outrank one another. A player cannot bid seven to over-call six; he must go to eight; and a player cannot _=bid=_ five tricks without a partner, although, as we have just seen, he may be forced to _=play=_ in that manner. When six, eight, or nine tricks are bid, the suits outrank one another for equal numbers of tricks; but as the suit called need not be the bidder’s true intention, nor the same as the card laid on the table, the proposer must be careful that his play will be as good as his bid. For instance: He intends nine tricks in spades, but proposes eight in diamonds. He cannot bid nine in diamonds, for that would be a better bid than he intends to play; but the ruse may succeed in inducing a player not to bid against him, hoping diamonds is the true suit. It is a common artifice to bid the true suit, because few will believe it to be such.
(_b_) This game is now generally played like Oranges and Lemons, only there is no tug-of-war at the end. Two children hold up their clasped hands to form an arch. The other children form a long line by holding to each other s dresses or waists, and run under. Those who are running under sing the first verse; the two who form the arch sing the second and alternate verses. At the words, What has this poor prisoner done? the girls who form the arch catch one of the line (generally the last one). When the last verse is sung the prisoner is taken a little distance away, and the game begins again. At Clun the players form a ring, moving round. They sing the first and alternate verses, and chorus, London Bridge is broken down. Two players outside the ring run round it, singing the second and alternate verses. When singing Penny loaves ll get stole away, one of the two outside children goes into the ring, the other remains and continues her part, singing the next verse.
(_b_) Kelly, in his _Scottish Proverbs_, p. 325, says, Tine cat, tine game; an allusion to a play called Cat i the Hole, and the English Kit-cat. Spoken when men at law have lost their principal evidence. See Cat and Dog, Cudgel, Kit-cat. Cat after Mouse This game, sometimes called Threading the Needle, is played by children forming a ring, with their arms extended and hands clasped; one--the Mouse--goes outside the circle and gently pulls the dress of one of the players, who thereupon becomes the Cat, and is bound to follow wherever the Mouse chooses to go--either in or out of the ring--until caught, when he or she takes the place formerly occupied in the ring by the Cat, who in turn becomes Mouse, and the game is recommenced.--Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 214). (_b_) Played at Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy); Clapham Middle-Class School (Miss Richardson); and many other places. It is practically the same game as Drop Handkerchief, played without words. It is described by Strutt, p.