The dialogue is concluded, and as the woman and her children are supposed to be out of hearing, the last couplet is said or sung. This process is gone through again until the mistress has engaged all the children as her servants, when she is supposed to let them all out to play with the mustard pots, which are represented by sticks or stones, in their hands. The other versions are played as follows:--The children form a line, the one in the middle being the mother, or widow; they advance and retire, the mother alone singing the first verse. One child, who is standing alone on the opposite side, who has been addressed by the widow, then asks [not sings] the question. The mother, or widow, sings the reply, and points to one child when singing the last line, who thereupon crosses over to the other side, joining the one who is standing alone. This is continued till all have been selected. The Ballynascaw version (Miss Patterson) is played in a similar way. One child sits on a bank, and the others come up to her in a long line. The old woman says the first five lines. No question is asked by the lady, she simply takes one child.
19. If any card is found faced in the pack, or if the pack be proved incorrect or imperfect, there must be a new deal. An imperfect pack is one in which there are duplicate or missing cards, or cards so torn or marked that they can be identified by the backs. 20. Should a player deal out of his turn, the deal must stand if it is complete; otherwise there must be a new deal by the right dealer. When the deal stands, the next deal must be by the player who should have dealt, and subsequent deals must be so arranged that there shall be the right number to each round. A player dealing out of turn may be penalized 10 points. ERRORS IN DEALING. 21. There are no misdeals.
His mouth moved heavily as he articulated words, Don t call our Partners cats. The right thing to call them is Partners. They fight for us in a team. You ought to know we call them Partners, not cats. How is mine? I don t know, said the doctor contritely. We ll find out for you. Meanwhile, old man, you take it easy. There s nothing but rest that can help you. Can you make yourself sleep, or would you like us to give you some kind of sedative? I can sleep, said Underhill. I just want to know about the Lady May.
The forfeit is to propitiate the offended _genius loci_ (Spurden s _East Anglian Vocabulary_). The element of divination in the custom is perhaps indicated by a curious note from Waldron, in his _Description of the Isle of Man_ (_Works_, p. 55), There is not a barn unoccupied the whole twelve days, every parish hiring fiddlers at the public charge. On Twelfth Day the fiddler lays his head on some of the wenches laps, and a third person asks who such a maid or such a maid shall marry, naming the girls then present one after another; to which he answers according to his own whim, or agreeable to the intimacies he has taken notice of during this time of merriment. But whatever he says is as absolutely depended on as an oracle; and if he happen to couple two people who have an aversion to each other, tears and vexation succeed the mirth. This they call cutting off the fiddler s head; for after this he is dead for the whole year. Redeeming the forfeits is called Crying the Weds, in Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 526. See Wadds. Fox Fox, a fox, a brummalary How many miles to Lummaflary? Lummabary? Eight and eight and a hundred and eight.
By taking three at once he can escape the rest. B sees that if he passes this trick A will at once lead the ♢2, and he will take all the remaining hearts; so he takes these three and throws the lead to Y, who has no chance to injure him. _11th Trick._ Z keeps two clubs, hoping that if Y gets in and leads clubs, B may discard a diamond instead of a heart, in which case Z would get clear. _=No. 4.=_ A, with his dangerous suit of spades, clears up the hearts at once. _=6th Trick.=_ The second round of spades betrays A’s dangerous suit to the other players. _=7th Trick.
1). When all the players have done this, the one who has his hand on the board pulls it out and lays it on the one uppermost (fig. 2): they all follow in rotation, and so a continual clashing and dashing is kept up; hence the name Dish. Those who win the game are those who stand out longest--viz., those who are best at enduring pain. Tender hands could not stand it a moment: one dash of a rustic loof would make the blood spurt from the tip of every finger. It is a piece of pastime to country lads of the same nature as Hard Knuckles (Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_). This is a well-known game for small children in London. After each child s hands have been withdrawn and replaced on top as many times as possible without deranging the order, a general scramble and knocking of hands together ends the game (A. B.
Choose once, choose twice, Choose three times over. Now you re married I wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy; Seven years old a son and daughter, Play and cuddle and kiss together. Kiss her once, kiss her twice, Kiss her three times over. --Deptford (Miss Chase). VII. There stands a lady on the mountain, Who she is I do not know: Oh! she wants such gold and silver! Oh! she wants such a nice young man! Now you re married I wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy; Seven years after a son and a daughter, Kiss your bride and come out of the ring. --Berkshire (Miss Thoyts, _Antiquary_; xxvii. 254). (_b_) A ring is formed, one child in the centre. The ring sing the first verse, and then the centre child chooses one from the ring.
Mactaggart has the following quaint note which perhaps may supply the origin, though it seems a far cry to the Crusaders:-- This sport has something methinks of antiquity in it; it seemeth to be a pantomime of some scenes played off in the time of the Crusades. King and Queen o Cantilon evidently must be King and Queen of Caledon, but slightly changed by time. Then Babylon in the rhyme, the way they had to wander and hazard being caught by the infidels, all speak as to the foundation of the game (Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_). In the _Gentleman s Magazine_ for December 1849, in a review of the _Life of Shirley_, it is stated that in many parts of England the old game of Thread the Needle is played to the following words, which refer to the gate of the city of Hebron, known as the needle s eye. How many miles to Hebron? Three score and ten. Shall I be there by midnight? Yes, and back again. Then thread the needle, &c. The game is also described in _Notes and Queries_, iv. 141, as played in the same way as above, and the writer adds there are subsequent evolutions by which each couple becomes in succession the eye of the needle. Howly A street game played by boys in a town, one of them hiding behind a wall or house-end, and crying Howly to the seekers.
I had a surge of relief. The strong-arm stuff was over. This was the casino s TK. What kept you, Brother? I said, sounding a little sore. These characters were going to kick my teeth out. His grin had a taste of viciousness. I did give them a little time, he agreed. How was I to know? He looked calmly at them over the tops of his glasses. You can go now, he said, like a schoolmarm dismissing class. The gorillas helped the blindly staring dealer to his feet, brushing at the sawdust that clung to his clothing, and had him presentable by the time they led him through the door.
The usual formula is for the Vorhand to say, “How many?” or, “I am Vorhand,” thereupon the Mittelhand bids or passes. If Vorhand has as good a game as offered him he says, “Yes,” and Mittelhand must bid higher or pass. If Vorhand has not as good a game he may either pass, or bluff the bidder into going higher by saying, “Yes.” As soon as one passes, the other turns to the Hinterhand, who must either make a higher bid than the last, or pass. The survivor of the first two must either say, “Yes,” to the offers made by Hinterhand, or pass. The final survivor then announces his game. It is usual for the last one to pass to signify that he is done by pushing the skat cards toward the survivor, indicating that they are his, and that he is the player. If a player is offered a game equal to his own he may still say, “Yes;” but if he is offered a better game, and still says, “Yes,” he runs the risk of being compelled to play. The old German way of bidding, adopted at the Skat Congresses in Altenburg, Leipzig and Dresden, was to bid in suits; a bid of club Solo outranking one of spade Solo, no matter what it was worth. This has long been obsolete, the objection to it being that a player might get the play on a game of much inferior value.