124) gives a version sung in the streets of New York, and considers it to be a relic of antiquity, a similar round being given in _Deuteromelia_, 1609. Jowls A game played by boys, much the same as Hockey, and taking its name, no doubt, from the mode of playing, which consists in striking a wooden ball or knorr from the ground in any given direction with a sufficiently heavy stick, duly curved at the striking end.--Atkinson s _Cleveland Glossary_. It is also given in _Yorkshire Glossary_ (Whitby). See Bandy, Doddart, Hockey. Jud A game played with a hazel nut bored and run upon a string.--Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. Probably the same game as Conkers. See Conkers. Keeling the Pot Brockett mentions that a friend informed him that he had seen a game played amongst children in Northumberland the subject of which was Keeling the Pot.
Duck Dance [Music] --London (A. B. Gomme). I saw a ship a sailin , A sailin on the sea, And oh, it was laden With pretty things for me [thee]. There were comfits in the cabin, And apples in the hold; The sails were made of silk, And the masts were made of gold. Four and twenty sailors That sat upon the deck, Were four and twenty white mice With chains about their necks. The captain was a duck, With a packet on his back; And when the ship began to move, The captain cried Quack! quack! --Northamptonshire, _Revue Celtique_, iv. 200; Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, No. ccclxxvii. (_b_) A number of little girls join hands and form a ring.
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.
CARDS. 11. There are thirty-two cards in the pack, the rank and value of which are as follows: Jack 2; ace 11; ten 10; king 4; queen 3; the nine, eight and seven having no counting value. 12. The suits shall always outrank one another in the same order; clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. The four jacks, or Wenzels, which are always the four best trumps, shall outrank one another in the same order. 13. In Nullo, the cards rank: A K Q J 10 9 8 7, and the suits and jacks are all of equal rank. DEALING. 14.
_=Widows.=_ Another variation is to deal five cards in the centre of the table, face downward, the dealer giving the cards to the widow just before helping himself in each round. Any player in his proper turn to bid may take the widow, and from the total of ten cards so obtained select five on which he must bid nap, discarding the others face downward. _=Peep Nap.=_ In this variety of the pool game one card only is dealt to the widow, usually on the first round. Each player in turn, before bidding or passing, has the privilege of taking a private peep at this down card, on paying one counter to the pool. The card is left on the table until the highest bidder is known, and he then takes it into his hand, whether he has paid to peep at it or not. He must then discard to reduce his hand to five cards. If a player bids nap it usually pays those following him to have a peep at the down card in case the bidder should retain it in his hand. SPOIL FIVE.
I think one can get a practical imitation of the effect of rifle-fire by deciding that for every five infantry-men who are roughly in a line, and who do not move in any particular move, there may be one (ordinary) shot taken with a 4 7 gun. It may be fired from any convenient position behind the row of five men, so long as the shot passes roughly over the head of the middle man of the five. Of course, while in Little Wars there are only three or four players, in any proper Kriegspiel the game will go on over a larger area--in a drill-hall or some such place--and each arm and service will be entrusted to a particular player. This permits all sorts of complicated imitations of reality that are impossible to our parlour and playroom Little Wars. We can consider transport, supply, ammunition, and the moral effect of cavalry impact, and of uphill and downhill movements. We can also bring in the spade and entrenchment, and give scope to the Royal Engineers. But before I write anything of Colonel Sykes suggestions about these, let me say a word or two about Kriegspiel country. The country for Kriegspiel should be made up, I think, of heavy blocks or boxes of wood about 3 x 3 x 1/2 feet, and curved pieces (with a rounded outline and a chord of three feet, or shaped like right-angled triangles with an incurved hypotenuse and two straight sides of 3 feet) can easily be contrived to round off corners and salient angles. These blocks can be bored to take trees, etc., exactly as the boards in Little Wars are bored, and with them a very passable model of any particular country can be built up from a contoured Ordnance map.
When the declarer wins the number of tricks bid or more, each above six counts on the trick score; two points when spades are trumps, six when clubs are trumps, seven when diamonds are trumps, eight when hearts are trumps, nine when royal spades are trumps, and ten when the declaration is no trump. 4. A game consists of thirty points made by tricks alone. Every deal is played out, whether or not during it the game be concluded, and any points made (even if in excess of thirty) are counted. 5. The ace, king, queen, knave, and ten of the trump suit are the honours; when no trump is declared, the aces are the honours. 6. Honours are credited to the original holders; they are valued as follows: _When a Trump is Declared._ 3[1] honours held between partners equal value of 2 tricks. 4 ” ” ” ” ” ” 4 ” 5 ” ” ” ” ” ” 5 ” 4 ” ” in 1 hand ” ” 8 ” 4 ” ” ” 1 ” { 5th in } ” ” 9 ” 5 ” ” ” 1 ” {partner’s} ” ” 10 ” _When No Trump is Declared.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5.
When I had calmed down, I stepped through the door into the cool of the desert night. * * * * * The gravel on the built-up roof crunched in the darkness under my feet as I walked cautiously to the parapet and looked over its edge to the hunk of desert that stretched away toward Reno, out behind the motel. The third story, behind me, cut off the neon glare from the Strip and left the place in inky darkness. There was silence and invisibility out behind the motel. Feeling a little creaky about falling a couple stories to the ground, I lay down on my back on the narrow parapet, with my hands behind my head to soften the concrete a little, and looked straight up into the night sky. A dawdling August Perseid scratched a thin mark of light across the blackness. I heard a coyote howl. This was desert. This was peace. The dice and chuck-a-luck seemed ten thousand miles away.