This is done by the conqueror putting her hand on the captured one s head. If this is not done at once the captured one is at liberty to return to her own side. In some versions (Shropshire and London) the player who is selected for Nuts is always captured by the one sent to fetch her. Some Barnes children also say that this is the proper way to play. When boys and girls play the boys are always sent to fetch away the girls. In Sheffield (a version collected by Mr. S. O. Addy) a boy is chosen to fetch the girl away; and in the Earls Heaton version the line runs, We ll have a girl for nuts in May. (_e_) There is some analogy in the game to marriage by capture, and to the marriage customs practised at May Day festivals and gatherings.
Again: Holding Q 9 3, partner leading Ace then Eight; Second Hand playing King second round, Third Hand should give up the Queen. Again: Holding K Q, partner leading the 8 originally, won by Fourth Hand with Ace; the King should be discarded or otherwise got rid of at the first opportunity. _=Short-suit Leads.=_ Many players will not lead a long weak suit unless they have sufficient strength to justify them in hoping to establish, defend, and bring it in, with _=reasonable=_ support from the partner. With a long suit, headed by a single honour, weak trumps, and no cards of re-entry, they prefer selecting a strengthening card for the original lead, hoping it may be of some assistance to partner by affording a successful finesse. It is claimed that it is better for a person, especially with a strong hand, to play with the knowledge that his partner is weak, than under the impression that he may be strong. Such an opening lead should warn the Third Hand to finesse deeply, to hold any tenaces he may have, and to let nothing pass him which might be too much for his weak partner to attend to. This is a very difficult game to play well, and is seldom resorted to except by the most expert. _=Deschapelles Coups.=_ It often happens that after the adverse trumps are exhausted, a player will find himself with the lead, but unable to give his partner a card of his established suit.
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PROGRESSIVE POKER. There are several ways to play Progressive Poker, but the description of one will suffice. The simplest method of arranging the players is to take two packs of cards, one red and one blue, and to select two aces from each for the four positions at the head table; three deuces, treys, etc., for the six positions at each of the other tables until the last or booby table is reached, at which there must be only four players at starting. If there are not enough players to make exactly six at each of the intermediate tables, the numbers may be varied from four to seven, cards being selected to agree with the number required; but the head and booby tables must start with four only. The cards thus selected are then thoroughly shuffled, and presented face downward to the ladies to draw from. Each lady takes a red-backed card, the gentlemen drawing the blue cards only. The number of pips on the card drawn will indicate to each person the table at which they are to sit. Should the number of men and women not be equal, some of the men must represent women or _vice versa_. Each player is provided at starting with a certain number of counters, usually fifty.
| | 10.| -- | -- | -- | | 11.| -- | -- |She shall go to Derby.| | 12.|You shall have a duck.|You shall have a duck.|She shall have a duck,| | | |(after No. 19) |my dear. | | 13.| -- |I will give pots and | -- | | | |pans.
[Illustration: SPREADING THE PACK.] The four having been selected, the cards are again shuffled and spread, and partners are cut for; the two lowest pairing against the two highest; the lowest of the four is the dealer, and has the choice of cards and seats. _=TIES.=_ As between cards of equal value in cutting, the heart is the lowest, diamonds next, then clubs and then spades. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at the bridge table are indicated by letters; A and B are partners against Y and Z; Z always represents the dealer, who always makes the first bid, A being the second bidder, Y the third and B the fourth. [Illustration: +-----+ | Y | |A B| | Z | +-----+ ] _=DEALING.=_ The cards having been properly shuffled the dealer, Z, presents them to the pone, B, to be cut. At least four cards must be left in each packet. Beginning at his left, the dealer distributes the cards one at a time in rotation until the pack is exhausted.
III. Mother, please buy me a milking-can, A milking-can, a milking-can! Mother, please buy me a milking-can, With a humpty-dumpty-daisy! [Then follow verses sung in the same manner, beginning--] Where s the money to come from, to come from? Sell my father s feather bed. Where s your father going to lie? Lie on the footman s bed. Where s the footman going to lie? Lie in the cowshed. Where s the cows going to lie? Lie in the pig-sty. Where s the pig going to lie? Lie in the dolly-tub. And what am I to wash in? Wash in a thimble. A thimble wunna hold a cap. Wash in an egg-shell. An egg-shell wunna hold a shirt.
The little girl named West had found something--something immense, long, black, sharp, greedy, horrific. She flung Captain Wow at it. Underhill tried to keep his own mind clear. Watch out! he shouted telepathically at the others, trying to move the Lady May around. At one corner of the battle, he felt the lustful rage of Captain Wow as the big Persian tomcat detonated lights while he approached the streak of dust which threatened the ship and the people within. The lights scored near-misses. The dust flattened itself, changing from the shape of a sting-ray into the shape of a spear. Not three milliseconds had elapsed. * * * * * Father Moontree was talking human words and was saying in a voice that moved like cold molasses out of a heavy jar, C-A-P-T-A-I-N. Underhill knew that the sentence was going to be Captain, move fast! The battle would be fought and finished before Father Moontree got through talking.
The dealer, beginning on his left, gives to each player in turn as many cards from the top of the pack as may be necessary to restore the number in his hand to six. When it comes to the dealer’s turn, instead of taking cards from the top of the pack, he may search the remainder of the pack, and take from it any cards that he pleases. This is called _=robbing the deck=_. Should he find in his own hand and the remainder of the pack more than six trumps, he must discard those he does not want, showing them face up on the table with the other discards. Should any player discard a trump, his partner has the right to call his attention to it, and if the player has not been helped to cards, or has not lifted the cards drawn, the trump erroneously discarded may be taken back; otherwise it must remain among the discards until the hand has been played, when, if it is of any counting value, it must be added to the score of the side making the trump. Although there is no law to that effect, it is considered imperative for each player except the dealer to discard everything but trumps. This is partly because no other cards are of the slightest use, and partly because one of the points of the game is that the number of trumps held by each player before the draw should be indicated by his discard. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The player who has named the trump suit begins by leading any card he pleases. If a trump is led, every one must follow suit if able to do so, and it must be remembered that the Left Pedro is one of the trump suit.
These are indicated by cross marks on the slate, each arm representing a deal. The two players with the higher scores at the end of the hand each rub off a mark and the one who is first to rub off all his marks is the winner, or the last to wipe off is stuck, according to agreement. Any one failing to get as many as 21 points in meld and play is set back a mark. TWO-HAND JASS. When only two play, the game closely resembles American pinochle, the winner of each trick drawing a card from the top of the stock, the loser drawing the next one. All melds are made immediately after winning a trick and before drawing from the stock, only one meld at a time being allowed. It is not necessary to follow suit to anything until the stock is exhausted, after which all melds cease and the second player to each trick must win it if he can, but the jack of trumps still has the privilege of renouncing if a plain suit is led. PATIENCE POKER As its name implies, this is a form of solitaire, but it may be managed so as to provide a pleasing competition for any number of players. Both forms of the game will be described, the solitaire first. _=CARDS.
A player to whom any one of these braggers is dealt may call it anything he pleases. If he has a pair of nines and a bragger, or a nine and two braggers, he may call them three nines, and bet on them as such. In this respect braggers resemble mistigris, already described in connection with Draw Poker; but in Brag a natural pair or triplet outranks one made with the aid of a bragger. Three eights will beat an eight and two braggers. The dealer must put up an ante before the cards are cut. This ante may be any amount he pleases within the betting limit. No player can straddle or raise this ante until the cards are dealt. Beginning on his left the dealer distributes the cards face down, and one at a time, until each player has received three. Beginning with the age, [eldest hand,] each player in turn must put up an amount equal to the dealer’s ante, or abandon his hand. He may, if he chooses, raise the ante any further amount within the betting limit.
Meanwhile, Red s two guns on his right came forward to Hook s Farm, rather badly supported by his infantry. Once they got into position there I perceived that we should be done for, and accordingly I rushed every available man forward in a vigorous counter attack, and my own two guns came lumbering up to the farmhouse corners, and got into the wedge of shelter close behind the house before his could open fire. His fire met my advance, littering the gentle grass slope with dead, and then, hot behind the storm of shell, and even as my cavalry gathered to charge his guns, he charged mine. I was amazed beyond measure at that rush, knowing his sabres to be slightly outnumbered by mine. In another moment all the level space round the farmhouse was a whirling storm of slashing cavalry, and then we found ourselves still holding on, with half a dozen prisoners, and the farmyard a perfect shambles of horses and men. The melee was over. His charge had failed, and, after a brief breathing--space for my shot--torn infantry to come up, I led on the counter attack. It was brilliantly successful; a hard five minutes with bayonet and sabre, and his right gun was in our hands and his central one in jeopardy. And now Red was seized with that most fatal disease of generals, indecision. He would neither abandon his lost gun nor adequately attack it.
If any one player gets clear, each of the others having at least one of the tabooed suit, he takes the entire pool. If two get clear, they divide the pool, leaving any odd counter to form the basis of a Jack, as at Sweepstakes. If one player takes all thirteen, it is a Jack; but instead of the next choice being sold to the highest bidder, the one who named the suit on the hand that made the pool a Jack has the choice of suits again for the next deal, and he must select some suit without paying anything further for it, until some player wins what he paid for the choice in the first place. That is, the pool must be won before the choice can be sold again. The general principle of the game is for the players to combine against the successful bidder, and to spare no effort to prevent him from winning the pool. _=SPOT HEARTS.=_ In this variation, when the hearts are announced at the end of the hand, the spots on them are the units of value, the Jack being worth 11, the Queen 12, the King 13, and the Ace 14. This adds nothing to the interest or skill of the game; but rather tends to create confusion and delay, owing to the numerous disputes as to the correctness of the count. The total to be accounted for in each deal is 104. In settling, the player with the smallest number collects from each of the others the amount they have in excess of his.
He plays the drum; all the other children play on any other instrument they like. If the other players do not at once change their instrument, or neglect to sing the lines, a forfeit is demanded. (_c_) Mr. Hardy says some sing this game, Follow my game an holy man. Mr. Hardy once thought it was the remnant of a goblin story of a hoary man of the gable or house-roof, who presided over the destinies of poor cottagers, and he had begun to make out the folk tale. The fairy would sometimes come down, and, playing his antics, compel whomsoever observed him to follow him in a mimicking procession. Miss Hope writes of Holy Gabriel that the game is played at Mead Vale, a small village in Surrey, but is unknown at larger villages and towns a few miles off. Some of the women who played it in their youth say that it began in the Primitive Methodist school at Mead Vale. It is played at Outword, also a remote village, and was introduced there by a stonemason, who stated that he had learned it from a cousin who had been in America.
Cards built on the foundations must be in the same suit, and build upward, nothing but eights being available on the sevens. On the layout, sequences are built down, and must change colour each time. Any time that there is a space in the four columns of the layout, the top card of the stock may be used to fill the space, but the stock itself must never be added to. If there are only two cards in any of the four columns of the layout at any time, and the top one can be used on another pile, it may be taken for that purpose. Suppose the nine of hearts were built on down to a black six, the five of diamonds could be removed to that pile to release the six of clubs. After running through the entire pack, three cards at a time, the cards that have not been used in the process, and which are lying on the table face up, are taken up again and turned face down, without shuffling them, and run through again, three at a time. As long as any card can be used it must alter the run of the cards that will turn up in threes after that, and the player may continue to go through the pack in this way until he is stopped by being unable to use any card that shows at the top of the three he turns up. The betting is against the player getting eleven cards in his foundation piles. If the pack is purchased for $52, he gets $5 for every card in his foundations. It is almost impossible to get out the whole fifty-two for $260, but it is done occasionally.
Each player deals in his turn; the right of dealing goes to the left. 34. The player on the dealer’s right cuts the pack, and, in dividing it, must not leave fewer than four cards in either packet; if in cutting, or in replacing one of the two packets on the other, a card be exposed, or if there be any confusion of the cards, or a doubt as to the exact place in which the pack was divided, there must be a fresh cut. 35. When a player, whose duty it is to cut, has once separated the pack, he cannot alter his intention; he can neither reshuffle nor recut the cards. 36. When the pack is cut, should the dealer shuffle the cards, he loses his deal. A NEW DEAL. 37. There must be a new deal-- I.
| | . | | . | | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | .
and Q._, iii. 282. (_d_) Two important suggestions occur as to this game. First, that the dance was originally the indication at a marriage ceremony for the bride and bridegroom to retire with the bowster to the nuptial couch. Secondly, that it has degenerated in Southern Britain to the ordinary Drop Handkerchief games of kiss in the ring. The preservation of this Bab at the Bowster example gives the clue both to the origin of the present game in an obsolete marriage custom, and to the descent of the game to its latest form. See Cushion Dance. Bad A rude kind of Cricket, played with a bat and a ball, usually with wall toppings for wickets. Bad seems to be the pronunciation or variation of Bat.
He went none too soon. Had he stayed, it would have been only a question of time before we shot him to pieces and finished him altogether. So far, and a little vaingloriously, the general. Let me now shrug my shoulders and shake him off, and go over this battle he describes a little more exactly with the help of the photographs. The battle is a small, compact game of the Fight-to-a-Finish type, and it was arranged as simply as possible in order to permit of a full and exact explanation. [Illustration: Fig. 6b--Battle of Hook s Farm. Position of Armies at end of Blue s third move.] [Illustration: Fig. 7--Battle of Hook s Farm.
124, gives a version of this game. It is practically the same as Mr. Ballantyne s version, with only a few verbal differences. Mactaggart says, The chief drift of this singular game seemed to be to discover the sweethearts of one another, and such discoveries are thought valuable, but not so much as they were anciently. In any case, it appears to me that the game is an early one, or, at all events, a reflection of early custom. Hickety, Bickety Hickety, bickety, pease-scone, Where shall this poor Scotchman gang? Will he gang east, or will he gang west, Or will he gang to the craw s nest? --Chambers (_Popular Rhymes_, p. 122). One boy stands with his eyes bandaged and his hands against a wall, with his head resting on them. Another stands beside him repeating the rhyme, whilst the others come one by one and lay their hands upon his back, or jump upon it. When he has sent them all to different places he turns round and calls, Hickety, bickety! till they have all rushed back to the place, the last in returning being obliged to take his place, when the game goes on as before.
To justify this expenditure he must have some permanent advantage, and if no such advantage or “percentage” is inherent in the principles of the game, any person playing against such a banker is probably being cheated. At Monte Carlo, everything is perfectly fair and straightforward, but no games are played except those in which the percentage in favour of the bank is evident, and is openly acknowledged. In Faro there is no such advantage, and no honest faro bank can live. It is for that reason that the game is not played at Monte Carlo, in spite of the many thousands of Americans who have begged the management to introduce it. The so-called percentage of “splits” at Faro is a mere sham, and any candid dealer will admit that they do not pay for the gas. Roulette, Rouge et Noir, Keno, and Chuck Luck are all percentage games, although the banker in the latter is seldom satisfied with his legitimate gains. The peculiarity about all percentage banking games is that no system, as a system, will beat them. The mathematical expectation of loss is so nicely adjusted to the probabilities of gain that the player must always get just a little the worst of it if he will only play long enough. Take any system of martingales, and suppose for the sake of illustration that in 1000 coups you will win 180 counters. The mathematical expectation of the game is such that just about once in a thousand coups your martingale will carry you to a point in which you will lose 200 counters, leaving you just 20 behind on every 1000 if you keep on playing.
OLD MAID. Strange to say, this oft-quoted and continually derided game is not mentioned in any work on cards, a singular omission which we hasten to supply. Any number of young ladies may play, and a pack of fifty-one cards is used, the Queen of hearts having been deleted. Any player can deal the cards, which are distributed one at a time until the pack is exhausted; if every player has not the same number it does not matter. Beginning with the eldest hand, each player sorts her cards into pairs of the same denomination; such as two Fives, two Jacks, etc., and all pairs so formed are laid upon the table face down, without showing them to the other players. All the cards laid out in this manner are left in front of the player, in order to discover errors, if any. Three of a kind cannot be discarded, but four of a kind may be considered as two pairs. The discarding of pairs complete, the dealer begins by spreading her remaining cards like a fan, and presenting them, face downward, to her left-hand neighbour, who must draw one card at random. The card so drawn is examined, and if it completes a pair, the two cards are discarded.
He that did throwe Chius wan three. And he that cast Senio gained four. This game (as I take it) _is used of children in Northfolke_, and they cal it the Chaunce Bone; they playe with three or foure of those bones together; it is either the same or very lyke to it. See Dibs, Hucklebones. Change Seats, the King s Come In this game as many seats are placed round a room as will serve all the company save one. The want of a seat falls on an individual by a kind of lot, regulated, as in many other games, by the repetition of an old rhythm. All the rest being seated, he who has no seat stands in the middle, repeating the words Change seats, change seats, &c., while all the rest are on the alert to observe when he adds, the king s come, or, as it is sometimes expressed, change their seats. The sport lies in the bustle in consequence of every one s endeavouring to avoid the misfortune of being the unhappy individual who is left without a seat. The principal actor often slily says, The king s _not_ come, when, of course the company ought to keep their seats; but from their anxious expectation of the usual summons, they generally start up, which affords a great deal of merriment.
But the opposition of another player may irritate you, [reizen,] and provoke you to bid 24, or even 28, in the hope of turning a heart or a spade. If you go beyond 20, and turn a diamond, you must either find the fourth Matadore in the Skat, or make your adversaries schneider, in order to secure another multiplier. If you fail, you lose 24, or 28, according to your bid. The great difficulty in Skat is to judge the value of a hand, so as neither to under nor overbid it, and also to get all out of it that it is worth. A person who plays a Frage in hearts when he could easily have made it a Solo, reduces the value of his game just eighty per cent. A player with the four Wenzels, A K Q 9 8 of diamonds, and a losing card, would be foolish to play a diamond Solo with five, schneider announced, worth 72; while he had in his hand a sure Grand, with four, schneider announced, worth 140. Of course the schneider is not a certainty. The risk is that the Ten of diamonds will be guarded, and that an Ace and a Ten will make, both of them on your losing card, or one of them on the diamond Ten. A careful player would be satisfied with 100 on such a hand, for if he fails to make the announced schneider, he loses everything. A player is not obliged to play the game he originally intended to, if he thinks he has anything better; but he must play a game worth as much as he bid, or the next higher, and having once announced his game, he must play it.
_=6.=_ If in the act of playing the player disturbs any ball other than his own, he cannot make a counting stroke, but he may play for safety. Should he disturb a ball after having played successfully, he loses his count on that shot; his hand is out, and the ball so disturbed is placed back as nearly as possible in the position which it formerly occupied on the table, the other balls remaining where they stop. _=7.=_ Should a player touch his own ball with the cue or otherwise previous to playing, it is foul, the player loses one, and cannot play for safety. It sometimes happens that the player after having touched his ball gives a second stroke, then the balls remain where they stop, or are replaced as nearly as possible in their former position at the option of his opponent. _=8.=_ When the cue-ball is very near another, the player shall not play without warning his adversary that they do not touch, and giving him sufficient time to satisfy himself on that point. _=9.=_ When the cue-ball is in contact with another, the balls are spotted and the player plays with his ball in hand.
=_ In the end game there are several variations which are made possible by the fact that the cards on your right are exposed. With A J x, Dummy having Q x x, the small card should be led. With Q x, and an odd card, Dummy having K x x of the first suit; it is better to play the odd card; but if for any reason this should not be done, lead the Q, hoping to find A 10 with your partner. The state of the score must be a constant guide in all end games. For instance: You hold Q 10 x, Dummy having J 9 x. If you want only one trick, play the Queen; but if you want two, play the small card. _=SECOND HAND PLAY.=_ The easiest position to play as second hand, is, of course, with the Dummy on your left, because Dummy’s cards will show what is best to be done. If a small card is led, you having King, put it on if Dummy has not the Ace; unless you want partner to get the lead. If Dummy has only two cards of the suit, neither of them the Ace, always play your King.
Where these differences were trivial (for example, Wolf and Lamb versus Wolf and the Lamb), their identity has been assumed silently. Following is a list of less trivial references. The game Stag is often referred to as Stag Warning, but occasionally they are listed as thought they were separate games. Volume I. Page 51: reference to Wind Up Jack: this game is not mentioned separately, but under Wind Up the Bush Faggot. Page 120: reference to Wind up the Watch, which is not listed as a separate game, but as a local name for Wind up the Bush Faggot. Page 137: reference to Crosspurposes: according to the description and Vol. II, this could be Cross-questions. Page 300: reference to How many miles to Barley Bridge?, which is not listed as a separate game; the phrase occurs in some of the versions of How many miles to Babylon? Page 318, section (c): The author refers to the Belfast version, but describes the Isle of Man version. This has not been changed.
) The presence of the devotee at the sacred bush. All these are incidents of primitive well-worship (see Gomme s _Ethnology and Folk-lore_, pp. 82-103). Garland dressing is very general; cakes were eaten at Rorrington well, Shropshire (Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 433); pins and portions of the dress are very general offerings; silence is strictly enforced in many instances, and a sacred tree or bush is very frequently found near the well. The tune of the Hampshire game (Miss Mendham s version) is practically the same as that of the Mulberry Bush. Newell (_Games of American Children_, p. 90) gives a version of this game. Drawing Dun out of the Mire Brand, quoting from an old collection of satires, epigrams, &c., says this game is enumerated among other pastimes: At shove-groat, venter-point, or crosse and pile, At leaping o er a Midsummer bone-fier, Or at _the drawing Dun out of the myer_.
Wrotham Miss D. Kimball. { Nodal and Milner s _Glossary_, LANCASHIRE { Harland and Wilkinson s _Folk-lore_, { ed. 1882, Mrs. Harley. Monton Miss Dendy. LEICESTERSHIRE Evan s _Glossary_. Leicester Miss Ellis. LINCOLNSHIRE { Peacock s, Cole s, and Brogden s { _Glossaries_, Rev. ---- Roberts.