=_ If the banker gives two cards, face up, to the player on his right, the player may retain which he pleases, throwing the other into the waste basket. If two cards are given to the player on the left, he may select which he pleases, and the banker must take the other. _=Order of Playing.=_ The coup finished, and all bets paid, the cards which have been used are all thrown into the waste basket, and the stakes are placed for the next coup. The banker deals again, from the top of the stock, without any further shuffling or cutting of the cards. If the player on the right won the first coup, the banker deals to him again; but if he lost, the banker deals to the next player beyond him; that is, the second from the banker, on his right. The same with the player on the left. If the player on the right or left wins the second coup, the cards are dealt to him again for the third coup; if he loses they are dealt to the next player beyond him, and so on, until all five players have held cards and have lost a coup, after which the banker deals to the one nearest him again. It will thus be seen that there are in each coup only two active players, and that all stakes made upon the game are made upon the result of their hands. _=Suggestions for Playing.
It is evidently a funeral game. The green gravel and the green grass indicate the locality of the scene; green, as applied to gravel, may mean freshly disturbed, just as green grave means a freshly made grave. The tenant of the new grave is the well-loved lady of a disconsolate lover, and probably the incidents of washing and dressing the corpse, and putting an inscription on the place where it is laid, are indicated by Nos. 13 and 15. The dirge, or singing to the dead, is indicated by Nos. 18, 23, and 26, and the beauty of the first line is in complete accord with the mournful music. That No. 26 occurs in only two variants, Derbyshire and the Isle of Man, is curious, as the pathos of this appeal is very apparent in the movement of the game. The communion with the dead which is indicated by No. 23 is by no means considered impossible by the peasantry.
For an example see Illustrative Hand No. 4. in which Y holds up the ♢ King to keep A from getting in and leading another round of hearts. In the same hand Z tries hard to make the pool a Jack by holding up the ♣ Q. Had not A been entirely safe in diamonds the stratagem would have succeeded. In following suit it is important to keep count of the cards played, in order to avoid the unwitting lead of a suit of which the other players have none. The suits that need close watching are those in which you have nothing smaller than a six or eight. You should be careful to note which player appears to have the smaller cards, after the suit has been led once or twice, and be on the watch to take the lead away from him in other suits if you can, or he may load you by leading the small cards of your dangerous suit, in which he is safe. When this danger is apparent, it is best to retain, until the second round, such high cards as Kings and Queens of the suits led. Even if you have four of the suit, you run only a 2 to 1 risk in winning the second round instead of the first, as against a certainty that you will be out of the pool at once if the dangerous player gets the lead.
(_b_) Two children stand apart; one, who personates the Mother, stands still and holds out her skirts with both hands; the other personates Jenny Jones, and kneels or stoops down in a crouching position behind her companion s outstretched skirts. The other players form a line by joining hands. They sing the first, third, and every alternate verse, advancing and retiring in line while doing so. The Mother sings the answers to their questions, standing still and hiding Jenny Jones all the time from view. When the verses are finished, Jenny Jones lies down as if she were dead, and the Mother stands aside. Two of the other players then take up Jenny Jones, one by the shoulders and the other by the feet, and carry her a little distance off, where they lay her on the ground. All the players follow, generally two by two, with their handkerchiefs at their eyes and heads lowered, pretending to grieve. This is the more general way of playing the game. In those versions where the reply, Very well, ladies, occurs, this is sung by the line of children just before they sing, We ve come to see Jenny Jones. Sometimes, as in the Berrington and Chirbury game, two lines of children facing each other advance and retire, singing the verses.
Where will you get it? Oh, I shall get a nice morsel somewhere; and as they are so handy, I shall satisfy myself with one of yours. Catch one if you can. A lively scene follows. The Fox and Mother Goose should be pretty evenly matched; the Mother with extended arms seeking to protect her Brood, while the Fox, who tries to dodge under, right and left, is only allowed in case of a successful foray or grasp to secure the last of the train. Vigorous efforts are made to escape him, the Brood of course supplementing the Mother s exertions to elude him as far as they are able, but without breaking the link. The game may be continued until all in turn are caught.--_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 217-18. In Lancashire the children stand in line behind each other, holding each other by the waist. One stands facing them and calls out-- My mother sits on yonder chimney, And she says she _must_ have a chicken.
In order to confirm the truth of the pleasing story you have built upon the twelve cards, they must be gathered together, shuffled, presented to be cut with the left hand, and then divided into four packets of three cards each. The first packet is for the Person, the second for the House, the third for the Future, and the fourth for the Surprise. Each packet is successively turned up, and its contents interpreted in connection with the part of the questioner’s life which it represents. In case there should be nothing very surprising in the last pack, it is well to have a few generalities on hand, which will be true of a person’s future six times out of ten. The expert at fortune telling has a stock of vague suggestions, supposed to be given by the cards, which are so framed as to draw from the client the drift of her hopes and fears. The scent once found, most of the fortune telling is in the nature of confirming the client’s own views of the situation. Nevertheless, when well done, by a good talker, fortune telling is very amusing, especially in a small company. BANKING GAMES. There are two distinct classes of banking games; those that can be played without any apparatus but a pack of cards and some counters; and those which require a permanent establishment and expensive paraphernalia. Among the first, probably the best known banking games are: Vingt-et-un, Baccara, Blind Hookey, and Fan Tan, the latter requiring only one card, the face of which is never seen.
He may even go no trump on a lighter hand. When the dealer bids a suit, second hand should over-call only when he can make his contract or wishes to indicate a lead in case third hand should go to no trumps. Second hand should never take the dealer out of a losing suit with a winning suit unless he has seven tricks in his own hand. If the dealer bids no trump, second hand should pass, unless he is prepared to over-call any further bid for three tricks. _=Third Hand=_ is not obliged to take the dealer out of a spade, and should not do so unless he is a trick or two stronger than he would have to be to declare as dealer. But the dealer must never be left in with a two or three spade bid. If third hand cannot do any better, he should declare a royal. When the dealer bids no trump, third hand should take him out with any weak five card suit and nothing else, simply to warn him that there are no winning cards in the hand. Always take him out with five cards in a winning suit, no matter how strong the rest of the hand. Take the dealer out of one suit with another suit only to deny his suit.
Mr. Micklethwaite, in a paper on the Indoor Games of School Boys in the Middle Ages (_Arch. Journ._ xlix. 322), gives instances of finding figures of this game cut in the cloister benches of Gloucester Cathedral and elsewhere, and there are several on the twelfth century tomb at Salisbury, miscalled Lord Stourton s, and also at Norwich Castle. For the date of these boards, Mr. Micklethwaite says for the last three centuries and a half cloisters everywhere in England have been open passages, and there have generally been schoolboys about. It is therefore not unlikely that they should have left behind them such traces as these play-boards. But if they are of later date they would not be found to be distributed in monastic cloisters with respect to the monastic arrangement, and we do find them so. Strutt describes the game (_Sports_, p.
6, says that a stool or cushion is one of the preparations for the reception of the bridegroom, who on entering the apartment sits down on the stool which is presented to him. He says, I step on this for the sake of food and other benefits, on this variously splendid footstool. The bride s father then presents to him a cushion made of twenty leaves of cúsa grass, holding it up with both hands and exclaiming, The cushion! the cushion! the cushion! The bridegroom replies, I accept the cushion, and taking it, places it on the ground under his feet, while he recites a prayer. It is probable that we may have in the Cushion Dance the last relics of a very ancient ceremony, as well as evidence of the origin of a game from custom. Cutch-a-Cutchoo Children clasp their hands under their knees in a sitting posture, and jump thus about the room. The one who keeps up longest wins the game.--Dublin (Mrs. Lincoln). (_b_) In _Notes and Queries_, x. 17, E.
4th. Because it is hopeless, and there is some chance in another. 5th. To prevent a cross ruff, by leading trumps. _=Simple Inferences=_ from the fall of the cards usually supply the best guide in the matter of changing suits. If the Jack is led from K Q J x x, and wins the trick, partner may be credited with the Ace; and if the original leader has four trumps, and a card of re-entry, he should quit his established suit, and lead trumps to defend it. If the King and Ace have been led from A K x x, partner dropping the Queen on the second round, the suit should be changed, unless the original leader is strong enough to risk weakening his partner by forcing him to trump the third round. Four trumps are generally considered to be sufficiently strong to justify a force in this position. Some players will force, even with a weak hand, if the two cards played by the partner are small, and he has not availed himself of an artifice known as _=calling for trumps=_, which we shall consider presently. If the King and Ten have been led from K Q J 10, and on the second round one adversary has dropped the Eight, the other the Nine; the suit should be changed, as partner must have the Ace, and neither of the adversaries have any more.
Whether to block the game or not depends on the probable comparative value of the dominoes held by A and B. If A blocks the game by making both ends blank, both players show their remaining dominoes, and the one with the greater number of pips loses as many points as he has pips in excess of the other player. In order to judge whether to block or play, it should be remembered that as there are 147 pips in the entire set, the average value of each domino will be 5¼. If A blocks the game, he will have 17 pips left in his hand, which is above the average value of two dominoes; but his adversary will have four dominoes to count, and it is probable that they will be worth about 21 points. The fact that the seven dominoes already played are 13 pips above the average will reduce the probable value of B’s dominoes to about 20. On the other hand, A knows that B has no blanks, which would slightly increase the weight of B’s dominoes. If A blocks the game, as he should do with the odds in his favour, he will win 7 points, the difference between his 17 and B’s 24. If he does not block, he must follow the 4-0 with the 5-4. This will bring in B’s ace suit, bringing him back to his long suit of 6’s. When the 5-1 was played, A would have to say, “go,” and B would continue with 1-1, 1-6, 6-3, claiming _=domino=_, all his pieces being exhausted.
It should be observed that if a player had 4 originally, and draws a 9, his point is not 13, but 3, because all 10’s count for nothing. There is no such thing as being créve, as at Vingt-et-un. _=Irregularities.=_ If the banker gives two cards, face up, to the player on his right, the player may retain which he pleases, throwing the other into the waste basket. If two cards are given to the player on the left, he may select which he pleases, and the banker must take the other. _=Order of Playing.=_ The coup finished, and all bets paid, the cards which have been used are all thrown into the waste basket, and the stakes are placed for the next coup. The banker deals again, from the top of the stock, without any further shuffling or cutting of the cards. If the player on the right won the first coup, the banker deals to him again; but if he lost, the banker deals to the next player beyond him; that is, the second from the banker, on his right. The same with the player on the left.
Triple bézique counts 1500. When a player wins a trick, either he or his partner may declare everything in the hand, but only one combination can be scored at a time. The advantage of showing all the combinations in the hand is that they may be built up by either partner. For instance: One partner has declared bézique and royal marriage, scoring the marriage only. His partner wins the next trick and adds A 10 J to the marriage, scoring the sequence; or perhaps shows three Kings or Queens, making fours. The players usually divide after the stock is exhausted, and for the last eight tricks each takes one of his former adversaries for a partner, but without changing seats. The game is usually 2000 points up. THREE-HANDED BÉZIQUE. Three persons play, each for himself. Two packs of thirty-two cards each and one of thirty-one cards are shuffled together.
I have (as several illustrations show) tried Little Wars in the open air. The toy soldiers stand quite well on closely mown grass, but the long-range gun-fire becomes a little uncertain if there is any breeze. It gives a greater freedom of movement and allows the players to lie down more comfortably when firing, to increase, and even double, the moves of the indoor game. One can mark out high roads and streams with an ordinary lawn-tennis marker, mountains and rocks of stones, and woods and forests of twigs are easily arranged. But if the game is to be left out all night and continued next day (a thing I have as yet had no time to try), the houses must be of some more solid material than paper. I would suggest painted blocks of wood. On a large lawn, a wide country-side may be easily represented. The players may begin with a game exactly like the ordinary Kriegspiel, with scouts and boxed soldiers, which will develop into such battles as are here described, as the troops come into contact. It would be easy to give the roads a real significance by permitting a move half as long again as in the open country for waggons or boxed troops along a road. There is a possibility of having a toy railway, with stations or rolling stock into which troops might be put, on such a giant war map.
Penny loaves would be eaten away. Build it up with silver and gold. Silver and gold would be stolen away. Get a man to watch all night. If the man should fall asleep? Set a dog to bark all night. If the dog should meet a bone? Set a cock to crow all night. If the cock should meet a hen? Here comes my Lord Duke, And here comes my Lord John; Let every one pass by but the very last one, And catch him if you can. --Cork (Mrs. B. B.
Musical Chairs A line of chairs is placed in a row down a room (one chair less than the number of children who are playing) in such a way that every alternate chair only is available on either side for the players to seat themselves. The children walk or dance round the chairs, keeping quite close to them. The piano or other musical instrument is played while they are dancing round. The music is continued for any length of time the player pleases, the children running round the chairs as long as the music goes on. The player stops the music suddenly, when all the children endeavour to take seats. One will be unable to find a seat, and this player remains out. A chair is then taken away, and the music and dancing round begins again. There should always be one chair less than the number of players.--A. B.