If a player calls his partner’s attention to the fact that they are at the bridge, both lose their right to order up the trump. _=16.=_ The dealer may leave the trump card on the pack until it is got rid of in the course of play. If the trump card has been taken up or played, any player may ask, and must be informed by the dealer, what the trump suit is; but any player naming the trump card may be called upon by an adversary to play his highest or lowest trump. _=17.=_ If the dealer takes up, or is ordered up, he must _=discard=_ a card from his own hand, placing it under the remainder of the pack. Having quitted such discard, it cannot be taken back. If the dealer has not discarded until he has played to the first trick, he and his partner cannot score any points for that hand. _=18.=_ If the eldest hand leads before the dealer has quitted his discard, the dealer may amend his discard, but the eldest hand cannot take back the card led.
Instead of retreating his whole force, he charged home with his mounted desperadoes, killed five of the eight men about the gun, and so by the rule silenced it, enabling the rest of his little body to get clean away to cover at the leisurely pace of one foot a move. This was not like any sort of warfare. In real life cavalry cannot pick out and kill its equivalent in cavalry while that equivalent is closely supported by other cavalry or infantry; a handful of troopers cannot gallop past well and abundantly manned guns in action, cut down the gunners and interrupt the fire. And yet for a time we found it a little difficult to frame simple rules to meet these two bad cases and prevent such scandalous possibilities. We did at last contrive to do so; we invented what we call the melee, and our revised rules in the event of a melee will be found set out upon a later page. They do really permit something like an actual result to hand-to-hand encounters. They abolish Horatius Cocles. [Illustration: The war game in the open air] [Illustration: Fig. 1--Battle of Hook s Farm. General View of the Battlefield and Red Army] We also found difficulties about the capturing of guns.
SEC. 2. If a player leads when it is his partner’s turn and the error is discovered before all have played to such lead, a suit may at once be called from the proper leader by his right-hand adversary. Until the penalty has been exacted, waived or forfeited, the proper leader must not lead; should he so lead, the card led by him is liable to be called. SEC. 3. If a player when called on to lead a suit has none of it, he may lead as he pleases. SEC. 4. If all have not played to a lead out of turn when the error is discovered, the card erroneously led and all cards played to such lead are not liable to be called, and must be taken into the hand.
If not successful, she must try again. If she is, they both stand in the middle, and commence singing the words again with-- Here come _two_ virgins on their knees, &c. Probably a degraded version of Three Lords from Spain. Here I sit on a Cold Green Bank Here I sit on a cold green bank On a cold and frosty morning. We ll send a young man [_or_ woman] to take you away, To take you away, We ll send a young man to take you away, On a cold and frosty morning. Pray tell me what his name shall be? [_or_] Pray, whom will you send to take me away? We ll send Mr. ---- to take you away. The children form a ring around one of the party, who sits in the middle, and says the two first lines. Then those in the circle dance round her, singing the next four lines. This is repeated three times, with the refrain, On a cold, &c.
If all three are tied at 40 points each, there is no score. 5. In all games which are played “open,” the hand of the single player must be laid face up on the table before either adversary plays a card; but the adversaries shall not be allowed to consult, neither can they dictate to the player what cards he shall play. FORMATION OF TABLE. 6. Any number from three to six may form a table, but there shall be only three active players in each deal, and they shall be known respectively as Vorhand, Mittelhand, and Hinterhand. Those who hold no cards shall share the fortunes of those opposed to the single player whose score is put down. 7. There shall be as many deals in each round as there are players at the table, and no person shall be allowed to withdraw from the game during a round unless the others consent to a substitute and such substitute be found. 8.
sc. 2. Miss Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_), in describing Merell or Morris, says:-- On the inclosing of open fields this game was transferred to a board, and continues a fireside recreation of the agricultural labourer. It is often called by the name of Mill or Shepherd s Mill. She says the mode of playing now observed is this. Each of the players has nine pieces, or men, differing in colour, or material, from his adversary, for distinction s sake; which they lay down on the spots alternately, one by one, each endeavouring to prevent his opponent from placing three of his pieces in a line, as whichever does so is entitled to take off any one of his antagonist s men where he pleases, without breaking a row of three, which must not be done whilst there is another man on the board. After all the pieces are placed on the board, they are moved alternately backwards and forwards along the lines; and as often as either of the players succeeds in accomplishing a row of three, he claims one of his antagonist s men, which is placed in the pound (the centre), and he who takes the most pieces wins the game. It is played on a board whereon are marked three squares, one being denominated the pound. It is sometimes played with pegs, bits of paper, or wood, or stone. It is called Peg Morris by Clare, the Northamptonshire poet.
There seems to be a growing tendency in America to adopt the English rule of cutting out the spade suit at 2 a trick, and making it always a royal spade, worth 9. The dealer is allowed to pass without making a bid, the lowest call being one club. If all pass, the deal goes to the left. BRIDGE. There are two principal varieties of this game; straight bridge, in which the dealer or his partner must make the trump, their opponents having nothing to say about it except to double the value of the tricks. The dealer’s partner is always the dummy, and either side may score toward game by making the odd trick or more. Auction bridge, in which the privilege of making the trump is bid for, the highest bidder playing the hand with his partner as dummy, regardless of the position of the deal, and his side being the only one that can score toward game, the adversaries scoring nothing but penalties in the honour column if they defeat the contract. As this is the more popular form of bridge at the present time, it will be given first. Since the adoption of the higher value for the spade suit under the name of royal spades, and the change in the value of the suits, the game gradually came to be known as royal auction, but as that change is now universal, the name has slipped back to its original title. AUCTION BRIDGE, OR AUCTION.
Gregor writes as follows:-- This game may be played either by boys or girls. Two of the players join hands, and stand face to face, with their hands in front as if forming a gate. Each of these has a secret name. The other players form themselves into a line by clasping each other round the waist from behind. They go up to the two that form the gate, and the leader asks the first question, as in version No. 2. The dialogue then proceeds to the end. The two then lift their arms as high as they can, still joined, and the line of players passes through. All at once the two bring their arms down on one and make him (or her) prisoner. The prisoner is asked in a whisper, so as not to disclose the secret name, which of the two is to be chosen.
In _Notes and Queries_, 6th Series, vii. 235, a North Yorkshire version is given as-- Nievie, nievie, nack, Whether hand wilta tak, Under or aboon, For a singal half-crown? Nievie, nievie, nick, nack, Whilk han will thou tak? Tak the richt or tak the wrang, I ll beguile thee if I can. Jamieson (_Supp., sub voce_) adds: The first part of the word seems to be from neive, the fist being employed in the game. A writer in _Notes and Queries_, iii. 180, says: The neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is held out to him who is to guess--the conjuror--_and it is he who is addressed_, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide conjecture, it may be) he is invoked in the person of Nic Neville (Neivi Nic), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrews in 1569.
If you lead the 5, the odds against your winning the trick decrease as the number of hearts you hold with the 5 increases. If you have four hearts, the 5 being the lowest, the odds against its winning the trick, if you lead it, are about 29 to 11. If you have eight hearts, the 5 being the lowest, it is about an even chance. If your only heart is the 6, it is about an even chance that it will win the trick; but the odds against you increase rapidly with the number of additional hearts that you hold. If you propose to lead the 7, the chances that it will win the trick are 2 to 1 under the most favourable circumstances, which are when it is your only heart. These odds against you increase rapidly with the number of additional hearts that you hold. _=LEADING PLAIN SUITS ORIGINALLY.=_ It will often happen that you will have to decide between the lead of a comparatively dangerous heart and a risky plain suit. Your knowledge of probabilities should enable you to select the safer course. The odds against getting a heart on the first round of a plain suit depend upon how many cards of the suit you hold.
This is provided with three sets of holes and three game holes. When a cribbage board is not at hand, the game may be kept by ruling a sheet of paper into ten divisions, and marking them with the figures 1 to 0 on each side: +---------------------------------------+ | 0 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | +---------------------------------------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | +---------------------------------------+ Each player being provided with two coins, one silver and one copper, (or different sizes,) the copper coin can be advanced from point to point to count units, and the silver coin will mark the tens. _=PLAYERS.=_ Cribbage is distinctly a game for two players, although three may play, each for himself, or four, two being partners against the other two. When two play, one is known as the _=dealer=_, and the other as the non-dealer, or the _=pone=_. _=CUTTING.=_ The players cut for the choice of seats, and for the first deal. The lowest cut has the choice, and deals the first hand. The Ace is low. If a player exposes more than one card he must cut again.
Cut Shots, very fine winning hazards. Dealing Off, the same dealer dealing again. Deck-head, an Irish name for the turned trump at Spoil Five. Deadwood, the pins that fall on the alley, in bowling. Décavé, F., frozen out; the entire amount of the original stake being lost. Défausser, se, F., to discard. D’emblée, F., on the first deal; before the draw.
. He gave me half-a-crown yince, and forbade me to play it awa at pitch and toss. And you disobeyed him, of course? Na, I didna disobey him--I played it awa at Nievie, nievie, nick-nack. See Handy-dandy. Nettles Nettles grow in an angry bush, An angry bush, an angry bush; Nettles grow in an angry bush, With my high, ho, ham! This is the way the lady goes, The lady goes, the lady goes; This is the way the lady goes, With my hi, ho, ham! Nettles grow in an angry bush, &c. This is the way the gentleman goes, &c. Nettles grow in an angry bush, &c. This is the way the tailor goes. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, 227. (_b_) The children dance round, singing the first three lines, turning round and clapping hands for the fourth line.
And still one more, for the sniffly girl with the hair-colored hair pressed in against my useless right arm when I elbowed my way in between the gamblers, directly across from the dealers. Billy Joe! she said, just loud enough to hear over the chanting of the dealers and the excited chatter of the dice players. Billy Joe! What a corn-ball routine! * * * * * I took stock before beginning to lose my stack of chips. There were more than twenty gamblers of both sexes pressed up against the green baize of the crap layout. Three stick-men in black aprons that marked them for dealers were working on the other side or the table. We had at least one dealer too many for the crowd. That screamed out loud the table was having trouble. Big gambling layouts know within minutes if a table is not making its vigorish. A Nevada crap layout, with moderately heavy play, should make six per cent of the amount gambled on every roll. That s its vigorish--its percentage.
Strutt says the bat-stick was called a bandy on account of its being bent, and gives a drawing from a fourteenth century MS. book of prayers belonging to Mr. Francis Douce (_Sports_, p. 102). The bats in this drawing are nearly identical with modern golf-sticks, and Golf seems to be derived from this game. Peacock mentions it in his _Glossary of Manley and Corringham Words_. Forby has an interesting note in his _Vocabulary of East Anglia_, i. 14. He says, The bandy was made of very tough wood, or shod with metal, or with the point of the horn or the hoof of some animal. The ball is a knob or gnarl from the trunk of a tree, carefully formed into a globular shape.
Johnson professes that he knew no more of it than that it was some rustic game. Another commentator speaks of it as common among shepherds boys in some parts of Warwickshire. It cannot well be more common there than here, and it is not particularly rustic. Shepherds boys and other clowns play it on the green turf, or on the bare ground; cutting or scratching the lines, on the one or the other. In either case it is soon filled up with mud in wet weather. In towns, porters and other labourers play it, at their leisure hours, on the flat pavement, tracing the figure with chalk. It is also a domestic game; and the figure is to be found on the back of some draught-boards. But to compare _morris_ with that game, or with chess, seems absurd; as it has a very distant resemblance, if any at all, to either, in the lines, or in the rules of playing. On the ground, the men are pebbles, broken tiles, shells, or potsherds; on a table, the same as are used at draughts or backgammon. In Nares it is said to be the same as nine-holes.
If he has taken them up and has too many, his hand is foul, and shuts him out of that pool. If the dealer gives himself more cards than he needs he is compelled to take them. For instance: He draws three cards to a pair; but on taking up his hand he finds he had triplets, and really wanted only two cards. He cannot change his draw, and must take the three cards he has dealt off. There is a penalty for not following the strict rule of the game, which is for each player, including the dealer, to discard before he draws. Should the dealer give any player more cards than he asked for, and the player discover the error before taking them up or looking at any of them, the dealer must withdraw the surplus card, and place it on the top of the pack. Should the dealer give a player fewer cards than he asks for, he must supply the deficiency when his attention is called to it, without waiting to supply the other players. If a player has more or less than five cards after the draw, his hand is foul, and he must abandon it, together with all he may have already staked in the pool. The dealer may be asked how many cards he drew; but he is not allowed to say how many cards he gave to any other player. Each player must watch the draw for himself.
Now as to the Moves. It is suggested that: Infantry shall move one foot. Cavalry shall move three feet. The above moves are increased by one half for troops in twos or fours on a road. Royal Engineers shall move two feet. Royal Artillery shall move two feet. Transport and Supply shall move one foot on roads, half foot across country. The General shall move six feet (per motor), three feet across country. Boats shall move one foot. In moving uphill, one contour counts as one foot; downhill, two contours count as one foot.
The _=anchor=_ shot is now barred in championship games. It consisted in getting two balls frozen to the cushion astride of one end of a line, and then just rubbing their faces with the cue ball. In the baulk-line nurse there are three principal positions, and two turns, as shown in the diagram. In No. 3 the red ball must be driven to the rail and back with great accuracy, leaving the balls in position No. 1 again. The turns are very difficult. CUSHION CARROMS. This is a variety of the three-ball game in which a cushion must be touched by the cue ball before the carrom is completed. The cushion may be struck first, and the object ball afterward, or the object ball first, and then the cushion.
=_ If a man wrongly moved can be moved correctly, the player in error is obliged to move that man. If he cannot be moved correctly, the other man that was moved correctly on the same throw must be moved on the number of points on the second die, if possible. If the second man cannot be so moved onward, the player is at liberty to move any man he pleases. _=11.=_ Any man touched, except for the purpose of adjusting it, must be moved if the piece is playable. A player about to adjust a man must give due notice by saying, “J’adoube.” A man having been properly played to a certain point and quitted, must remain there. _=12.=_ The numbers on both dice must be played if possible. If there are two ways to play, one of which will employ the numbers on both dice, the other only one of them, the former must be played.
W.) Jamieson (_Dictionary_) says, To do Dingle-dousie, a stick is ignited at one end and given as a plaything to a child. Elworthy (_West Somerset Words_) does not give this as a game, but says a burning stick was whirled round and round very quickly, so as to keep up the appearance of a ribbon of fire. Miss Burne (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 530), says, Children wave a burning stick in the air, saying-- A girdle o gold, a saddle o silk, A horse for me as white as milk, an evident relic of divinations or incantations practised with bonfires. Halliwell (_Nursery Rhymes_, p. 213) gives the rhyme as-- Jack s alive, and in very good health, If he dies in your hand you must look to yourself; the game being played in the same way as the Sheffield version (see also Halliwell s _Dictionary_ and Moor s _Suffolk Words_). (_b_) This is a very significant game, and its similarity in miniature to the old tribal custom of carrying the fiery cross to rouse the clans at once suggests the possible origin of it. The detention of the fiery cross through neglect or other impediment was regarded with much dread by the inhabitants of the place in which it should occur. This subject is discussed in _Gomme s Primitive Folkmoots_, p.