These supplies, at the time when they are given up, must be within six feet of the infantry they belong to and eighteen feet of the cavalry. Isolated bodies of less than thirty infantry require no supplies--a body is isolated if it is more than twelve feet off another body. In calculating supplies for infantry the fractions either count as thirty if fifteen or over, or as nothing if less than fifteen. Thus forty-six infantry require two packets of food or ammunition; forty-four infantry require one packet of food. N.B.--Supplies are not effective if enemy is between supplies and troops they belong to. Men surrounded and besieged must be victualled at the following rate:-- One packet food for every thirty men for every six moves. One packet forage every six horses for every six moves. In the event of supplies failing, horses may take the place of food, but not of course of forage; one horse to equal one packet.
IV. Here comes a poor woman from Baby-land With three small children in her hand. One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake. One can sit in the garden and spin, Another can make a fine bed for the king; Pray, ma am, will you take one in? --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 72. V. Here is a poor widow from Sandy Row, With all her children behind her. One can knit and one can sew, And one can make the winder go. Please take one in. Now poor Nellie she is gone Without a farthing in her hand, Nothing but a guinea gold ring.
Stead s _Holderness Glossary_ calls it Merrils, and describes it as a game played on a square board with eighteen pegs, nine on each side, called in many parts Nine Men s Morrice. See also _Sussex Arch. Collections_, xxv. 234, and a paper by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite (_Arch. Journ._, xlix. 322), where diagrams of this game are given which have been found cut in several places on the benches of the cloisters at Gloucester, Salisbury, and elsewhere.
=_ If the striker miss the ball he ought to play at, and by the same stroke pocket another ball, _he_ loses a life, and not the person whose ball he pocketed; in which case the striker’s ball must be taken up, and both balls remain in hand until it be their several turns to play. _=10.=_ If the player inquire as to which is his ball, or if it be his turn to play, the marker or the players must give him the information sought. _=11.=_ 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.
If the adversaries refused, they were obliged to win all five tricks or lose two points. It was compulsory to win the trick if possible, and to trump, over-trump, or under-trump if the player had none of the suit led. This peculiarity survives in the games of Rams and Loo, which also belong to the euchre family. After a time we find a variation introduced in which any number from two to six could play, each for himself, and the player first winning two tricks out of the five marked the point. Later still we find the ace ranking above the King, thus becoming the best trump. If the ace was turned up, the dealer had the privilege of robbing it, or the holder of the ace of trumps could rob the turn-up, discarding any card he pleased, just as in Spoil Five. But in Triomphe the dealer turned up another card, and if that was of the trump suit the holder of the ace could rob that also, and so on until he turned a card of a different suit. This did not alter the trump, but merely stopped the robbing process. Whether or not Triomphe borrowed this feature from Spoil Five or Maw, it is now impossible to say. Whatever its origin, Euchre has always been the most respectable member of the family, and the game of all others that has best served the card-playing interest in social life.
In the Penzance game one child is blindfolded, other children hide something, then shout the words. Search is then made for the hidden object: when found, the finder in his turn is blindfolded. There appears to be some mistake in the description of this game. Hinch-Pinch The name of an old Christmas game mentioned in _Declaration of Popish Impostures_, 1603. Hinmost o Three A game played on village greens.--Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary, Supplement_. Hirtschin Hairy The players (boy or girl) cower down on their haunches, sit doon curriehunkers, and hop round and round the floor like a frog, clapping the hands first in front and then behind, and crying out, Hirtschin Hairy. It is sometimes called Hairy Hirtschin. In Lothian the players try to knock each other over by hustling against one another.--Rev.