with his brother, Captain M., hot from the Great War in South Africa, came in most helpfully--to quicken it. Manifestly the guns had to be reduced to manageable terms. We cut down the number of shots per move to four, and we required that four men should be within six inches of a gun for it to be in action at all. Without four men it could neither fire nor move--it was out of action; and if it moved, the four men had to go with it. Moreover, to put an end to that little resistant body of men behind a house, we required that after a gun had been fired it should remain, without alteration of the elevation, pointing in the direction of its last shot, and have two men placed one on either side of the end of its trail. This secured a certain exposure on the part of concealed and sheltered gunners. It was no longer possible to go on shooting out of a perfect security for ever. All this favoured the attack and led to a livelier game. Our next step was to abolish the tedium due to the elaborate aiming of the guns, by fixing a time limit for every move.
=_ The players cut for seats and deal, the lowest card having the first choice and dealing the first hand. A player exposing more than one card must cut again. _=Stakes.=_ The game is played for so much a point. The largest winning or loss for the single player is 140, but such an amount is almost impossible, and the average payments are 10 or 20. _=Dealing.=_ The cards are presented to the pone to be cut, and at least four must be left in each packet. The dealer then distributes them to the players four at a time, until each has twelve, four remaining in the stock or talon, which is left upon the table face down. No trump is turned. The deal passes to the left.
=_ The regular game is played by two persons, one of whom is known as the dealer, and the other as the pone. They cut for seats and deal, the highest cut having the choice. _=Stakes.=_ Sixty-six is played for so much a game, or for so much a point, the loser’s score being deducted from the winner’s. If the loser has not scored at all, it is usually counted a double game. _=Dealing.=_ The cards having been shuffled and presented to the pone to be cut, the dealer gives six cards to each player, three at a time, dealing first to his adversary. There are several ways of making the trump, one of which should be agreed upon before play begins. One way is for the pone to draw a card from the top, the middle, or the bottom of the talon, after the dealer has given each player his six cards. Another way is for the dealer to turn up the seventh card, after dealing the first round of three to each player.
Taking up the six, he sorts them and discards for the crib, just as if the two cards already there had been laid off by an opponent. The pack is then cut for the starter. There is no play, and the hand is turned up and counted, scoring it on a regular cribbage board. The crib is then counted and scored. Leaving the starter still face up on the top of the pack, the eight cards in hand and crib are thrown aside. For the next deal, the player gives himself three cards from the top of the pack, one of which was the starter on the last deal, then two for the crib and three more for himself, discarding for the crib, cutting a starter, counting and scoring hand and crib as before. This is continued until only four cards are left, one of them being the starter for the last deal. Turn up these four cards and count them as a hand. The game is usually 91 points, and the object of the solitaire player is to see if he can reach the game hole without going through the pack more than once. If he does not reach with six hands and cribs, each with a starter, and one hand of four cards without a starter, he has failed to get the solitaire.
In the United States, laws better suited to the American style of play were drawn up by the American Whist League in 1891, and after several revisions were finally adopted, in 1893, as the official code for League clubs. The literature of whist saw its palmiest days at the beginning of this century. 7,000 copies of Bob Short’s “Short Rules for Whist” were sold in less than a year. Mathews’, or Matthews’, “Advice to the Young Whist-Player,” went through eighteen editions between 1804 and 1828. After these writers came Admiral Burney, who published his “Treatise” in 1821; Major A. [Charles Barwell Coles,] gave us his “Short Whist” in 1835. Deschapelles published his “Traité du Whiste” in 1839, but it gave little but discussions on the laws. “Whist, its History and Practice” by Amateur, appeared in 1843. General de Vautré’s “Génie du Whiste,” in 1847. “Cælebs” [Edward Augustus Carlyon] wrote his “Laws and Practice” in 1851.
This game may be compared with the game of King Arthur mentioned by Brand (_Pop. Antiq._, ii. 393). Father s Fiddle This is a boys game. One boy says to another, Divv (do) ye ken (know) aboot my father s fiddle? On replying that he does not, the questioner takes hold of the other s right hand with his left, and stretches out the arm. With his right hand he touches the arm gently above the elbow, and says, My father had a fiddle, an he brook (broke) it here, an he brook it here (touching it below the elbow), an he brook it throw the middle, and comes down with a sharp stroke on the elbow-joint.--Keith, Fochabers (Rev. W. Gregor).
Only the player who wins the pool can demand payment for combinations held. TEXT-BOOKS ON POKER. Draw Poker, by John W. Keller, 1887. Round Games, by Baxter-Wray, 1891. Complete Poker Player, by John Blackbridge, 1875. Proctor on Draw Poker, 1883. Schenck’s Rules for Draw Poker, 1872. The Poker Book, by Richard Guerndale, 1888. The Gentlemen’s Handbook of Poker, by J.
--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor). This game is practically the same as Fool, Fool, come to School, but the secret naming may indicate that this belongs to an earlier form. See Fool, Fool, Hecklebirnie. Neighbour There is a game called Neighbour, I torment thee, played in Staffordshire, with two hands, and two feet, and a bob, and a nod as I do. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Neiveie-nick-nack A fireside game. A person puts a little trifle, such as a button, into one hand, shuts it close, the other hand is also shut; then they are both whirled round and round one another as fast as they can, before the nose of the one who intends to guess what hand the prize is in; and if the guesser be so fortunate as to guess the hand the prize is in, it becomes his property; the whirling of the fists is attended with the following rhyme-- Neiveie, neiveie, nick nack, What ane will ye tak, The right or the wrang? Guess or it be lang, Plot awa and plan, I ll cheat ye gif I can. --Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_.
At Charminster the dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who dances about the room with a cushion in his hand, and at the end of the tune stops and sings:-- Man: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, good sir, why say you so? Man: Because Joan Sanderson will not come to. Musician: She must come to, and she shall come to, And she must come whether she will or no. Then the following words are sung as in the first example:-- Man: Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome. Both: Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance, And shall we go dance it once again, And once again, And shall we go dance it once again? Woman: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, madam, why say you so? Woman: Because John Sanderson will not come to. Musician: He must come to, and he shall come to, And he must come whether he will or no. And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing-- Welcome, John Sanderson, &c. Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands and dance round singing as before; and this they do till the whole company is taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid down before the first man, the woman singing, This dance, &c.
The card he selects he lays face upward on the table on his own side of the cribbage board, and at the same time announces its pip value; two, five, or ten, whatever it may be. It is then the dealer’s turn to play a card from his hand, which is also laid face upward on the table, but on the dealer’s side of the cribbage board. Instead of announcing the pip value of this second card, the dealer calls out the total value of the two cards taken together. The pone then lays another card on the table face upward and on the top of the first, which is not turned face down, and at the same time announces the total pip value of the three cards so far played; the dealer plays again, and so on. If at any time the total pip value of the cards played is exactly 15 or 31, the one who plays the card that brings it to that number pegs two points for it at once. If any counting combination, such as a pair, pair royal, or sequence, is formed by the cards played, its value is pegged by the person that plays the card which completes the combination; but neither player is allowed to play a card which will make the total pip value of the cards played pass 31. The method of forming and pegging these various combinations in play will be better understood if they are described separately. A card once played cannot be taken up again, unless it passes 31. _=Pairs.=_ If the first card played by the pone should be a 6, and the dealer had a 6 also, the latter would probably play it, announcing: “Twelve, with a pair,” and pegging two holes.
[Illustration] The highest possible score is 20 points, made with the 4-4 and 6-6, at different ends. If either player makes a multiple of five without noticing or claiming it, his adversary says, “_=muggins=_,” and scores it himself. If a player makes an erroneous score, it must be taken down, and his adversary marks it as penalty. When a player cannot follow suit, he must draw from the bone-yard until he gets a domino that can be played; but the last two in the stock must never be drawn. When one player gets rid of all his bones, he calls _=domino=_, and scores the nearest multiple of five that is found in the dominoes remaining in his adversary’s hand. Remainders of 3 or 4 count as 5; those of 1 or 2 as nothing; so that 12 pips would count as 10; but 13 would count as 15. The players usually settle at the end of the game for the difference between their scores. Muggins is sometimes varied by playing from both ends of the first doublet set, as well as from the sides. It is not necessary to play on the ends of the first set until one cannot play on the line; but any of the four points may be played to at any time. The end of the first doublet does not count in making multiples of five, but the ends of any dominoes played to it must be counted.
The impérials are then called, each being worth one _=red=_ counter. The sequences are called first, that in trumps being “good” of course; then the fours are called, the best being four Kings, and the lowest four Aces. In plain-suit sequences there are no “equals,” the elder hand counting ties as an offset to the advantages of the deal. _=Playing.=_ The elder hand leads a card, and the dealer then declares and marks any impérials he may have that are good; after which he plays a card. No impérials can be claimed or scored after the holder has played a card. The second player in each trick must win the trick if he can, either with a higher card or with a trump. For each honour in trumps in the tricks won the player marks a white counter at the end of the hand. The winner of the odd trick scores as many white counters as he has tricks in excess of his adversary. If either player makes capot, (all twelve tricks,) he scores two red counters.