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He says there can be no doubt that the two forms of this amusement are branches of the same root; and we thus have an example of a game which, having preserved its essential characteristics for thousands of years, has fairly circumnavigated the globe, so that the two currents of tradition, westward and eastward, from Europe and Asia, have met in America. See Checkstones, Dibs, Hucklebones, Jackstones. Flowers Sides are chosen; each side must have a home at the top and bottom of the ground where the children are playing. One side chooses a flower and goes over to the other side, the members of which stand in a row facing the first side. The first side states the initial letters of the flower it has chosen, and when the second side guesses the right flower they run and try to catch as many of the opposite side as they can before they reach their home. The captives then become members of the side which captured them.--Bitterne, Hants (Mrs. Byford). Follow my Gable [Music] --Earls Heaton, Yorkshire. [Music] --Redhill, Surrey.
Grimm mentions the cuckoo hill (Gauchsberg). He says, Originally in Gauchsberg the bird himself may very well have been meant in a mystic sense which has fallen dark to us now (_Teut. Myth._, ii. 681). We know, too, the old belief that the cuckoo tells children how many years they have to live. These lines are also sometimes said, in addition to those given above-- Elder belder, limber lock, Three wives in a clock; Sit and sing, and call a spring, O-u-t spells out. The boy who bends down is supposed to be undergoing a great penalty. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 394) describes this game, and gives an illustration which is here reproduced from the original MSS.
=_ If the striker, while taking aim, inquire which is the ball he ought to play at, and should be misinformed by the marker or by any of the company, he does not lose a life. His ball must in this case be replaced and the stroke played again. _=12.=_ When a ball or balls touch the striker’s ball, or are in line between it and the ball he has to play at, so that it will prevent him hitting _any part of the object-ball_, such ball or balls must be taken up until the stroke be played, and, after the balls have ceased running, they must be replaced. _=13.=_ If a ball or balls are in the way of a striker’s cue, so that he cannot play at his ball, he can have them taken up. _=14.=_ When the striker _takes_ a life, he continues to play on as long as he can pocket a ball, or until the balls are all off the table, in which latter case he places his own ball on the spot as at the commencement. _=15.=_ The first player who loses his three lives is entitled to purchase, or _star_, by paying into the pool a sum equal to his original stake, for which he receives lives equal in number to the lowest number of lives on the board.
As the ball loses its momentum it strikes some little brass ridges, which cause it to jump onto the wheel, and then to run into one of the pockets. The number, the colour, odd or even, and whether above or below, is immediately announced by the banker, and all bets are taken and paid accordingly. _=The Layout.=_ The wheel is sunk in the middle of a long table, on each end of which is a layout, and on these layouts all bets are placed. The divisions are as follows:-- The heavy faced type indicates the black numbers: [Illustration: +------+ | 0 | +--------+------+------+------+--------+ | | 1 | =2= | 3 | | | +------+------+------+ | | | =4= | 5 | =6= | | | Passe +------+------+------+ Manque | | | 7 | =8= | 9 | | | +------+------+------+ | | | =10= | =11= | 12 | | +--------+------+------+------+--------+ | | =13= | 14 | =15= | | | +------+------+------+ | | | 16 | =17= | 18 | | | Pair +------+------+------+ Impair | | | 19 | =20= | 21 | | | +------+------+------+ | | | =22= | 23 | =24= | | +--------+------+------+------+--------+ | | 25 | =26= | 27 | | | +------+------+------+ | | | =28= | =29= | 30 | | | Noir +------+------+------+ Rouge | | | =31= | 32 | =33= | | | +------+------+------+ | | | 34 | =35= | 36 | | +--+--+--+------+------+------+--+--+--+ | P| M| D| | | | P| M| D| |12|12|12| | | |12|12|12| +--+--+--+------+------+------+--+--+--+ ] Bets may be made on the following chances: 1. _=En plein.=_ Flat upon any number, which pays 35 for 1. The betting limit at Monte Carlo is 180 francs. 2. _=A cheval=_, on the line between two numbers, which pays 17 for 1.
_=Systems.=_ As at Faro, gamblers at Roulette are never tired of devising systems to beat the game; but none of them are of any further use than to afford a little passing amusement to their inventors. Persons who are interested in systems will find in the New York Sun, July 5, 1896, a very interesting tabulation of every roll of the ball at Monte Carlo for seven successive days, 4,012 in all, of which 120 were zeros. If they can find a system that will beat the wheel for seven days, and have a return ticket, Monte Carlo will take care of all their spare cash. One curious fallacy about some systems is to imagine that they will win if the player will quit when he is a certain amount ahead, and not play again until next day. Until some rule can be given by which the exact hour can be fixed to begin play, all such systems must be delusions, as there is no reason why a second man should not begin where the first left off, and therefore no reason why the first should not continue playing all the time. It is in the interest of the proprietors of all gambling houses to pretend to be afraid of systems. The word is passed round, and the deluded gamesters think they have found the thread which has held the sword of Damocles above the banker’s head so long. As a matter of fact, there is no one so welcome at a gambling house as a player with a system. A man may be fortunate enough for a long time to guess right oftener than he will guess wrong, and a lucky man in good guessing form is a very dangerous customer, that no cold deck will beat; but a man with a system surrenders to a double foe; the inevitable percentage of the game, and the skill of the banker, who can beat any system if the player will only promise to stick to it.
While this is true, it is also true that in discarding their weak suit they too often enable the declarer to win tricks that they might have stopped. For this reason, many players _=discard the suit they are not afraid of=_; that is, their best protected suit, and keep what protection they have in the weak suits, even if it is nothing but three to a Jack or ten. Unfortunately, no one has yet been able to advance any argument sufficiently convincing for either system to demonstrate that it is better than the other. Some of the best teachers of the game advocate the discard from strength against no-trumps; others teach the weak discard. _=ENCOURAGING DISCARDS.=_ In order to distinguish between discards from weakness and those from strength, many players use what is called an encouraging card. This is anything higher than a six, if they have protection in the suit, or want it led. A player with an established suit, and A 8 2 of another suit, for instance, would discard the 8, to encourage his partner to lead that suit and put him in. In case there is no card higher than the six, the _=reverse discard=_ is used. With A 4 2, the play would be the 4 and then the 2.
A betting limit should be agreed upon, and one player should be the banker for the evening. _=Blind.=_ Before the cards are dealt, each player deposits one counter in the pool; there is no straddle. _=Dealing.=_ The cards are cut to the left, and dealt to the right, and two cards are given to each player, one at a time, face down. _=Method of Playing.=_ Each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s right, examines his hand, and if satisfied with it he says: “Enough.” If not satisfied, he may discard one or both of his cards, and receive others from the top of the pack. In either case he places two white counters in the pool for his ante. All having decided to stand or to draw, the remainder of the pack, exclusive of the discards, is reshuffled and cut; each player is then given two more cards, one at a time, and face down.
By striking the end of the spell with the kibble, the nur, of course, rises into the air, and the art of the game is to strike it with the kibble before it reaches the ground. He who drives it the greatest distance wins the game.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 109) describes this game as Northern-spell, played with a trap, and the ball is stricken with a bat or bludgeon. The contest between the players is simply who shall strike the ball to the greatest distance in a given number of strokes. The length of each stroke is measured before the ball is returned, by means of a cord made fast at one end near the trap, the other being stretched into the field by a person stationed there for that purpose, who adjusts it to the ball wherever it may lie. In a work entitled the _Costumes of Yorkshire_ this game is described and represented as Nor and Spell. The little wooden ball used in this game is in Yorkshire called the Nor, and the receptacle in which it is placed the Spell. Peacock (_Manley and Corringham Glossary_) gives knur, (1) a hard wooden ball, (2) the head.
It appears to have been the _tremerel_ mentioned in an old fabliau. See _Le Grand_, _Fabliaux et Contes_, ii. 208. Dr. Hyde thinks the morris, or merrils, was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into _three men s morals_, or _nine men s morals_. If this be true, the conversion of _morrals_ into _morris_, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The Doctor adds, that it was likewise called _nine-penny_ or _nine-pin miracle_, _three-penny morris_, _five-penny morris_, _nine-penny morris_, or _three-pin_, _five-pin_, and _nine-pin morris_, all corruptions of _three-pin, &c, merels_ (Hyde s _Hist. Nederluddi_, p. 202). Nares says the simpler plan here represented (fig.
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Figure 8 gives the disastrous consequences of Red s last move. Blue has moved, his guns have slaughtered ten of Red s wretched foot, and a rush of nine Blue cavalry and infantry mingles with Red s six surviving infantry about the disputed gun. These infantry by the definition are isolated; there are not three other Reds within a move of them. The view in this photograph also is an extensive one, and the reader will note, as a painful accessory, the sad spectacle of three Red prisoners receding to the right. The melee about Red s lost gun works out, of course, at three dead on each side, and three more Red prisoners. Henceforth the battle moves swiftly to complete the disaster of Red. Shaken and demoralised, that unfortunate general is now only for retreat. His next move, of which I have no picture, is to retreat the infantry he has so wantonly exposed back to the shelter of the church, to withdraw the wreckage of his right into the cover of the cottage, and--one last gleam of enterprise--to throw forward his left gun into a position commanding Blue s right. [Illustration: Fig. 8--Battle of Hook s Farm.
=_ This is another variety of the Block Game. Each player takes seven bones, and the highest double or the heaviest domino sets. The object is not to follow suit to the ends, but to play a number which will make the end and the number played to it equal _=seven=_. If the end is a 3, a 4 must be played; a 2 must be played to a 5, and an ace to a 6. Four dominoes in the set are trumps, or Matadores. These are the double blank, and the three dominoes that have seven on their faces; 6-1, 5-2, and 4-3. Any of these trumps may be played at any time on either of the ends, in order to prevent a block; but the following player, if he does not play a trump also, must play the complement of seven to whichever end of the matadore is left exposed. Doublets are not placed crosswise, and count only for the suit to which they belong; a double three cannot be played to an ace, because it counts as three only. The trumps are usually placed at right angles to the line. The game is decided and settled for as in the ordinary Block Game.