When the last verse is sung the prisoner is released. The Berkshire game (Miss Kimber) is played by the children forming two long lines, each line advancing and retiring alternately while singing their parts. When the last verse is begun the children form a ring and gallop around, all singing this last verse together. In the Cork version (Mrs. Green) the children form a circle by joining hands. They march round and round, singing the verses to a sing-song tune. When singing, If the cock should meet a hen, they all unclasp hands; two hold each other s hands and form an arch. The rest run under, saying the last verse. The arch lower their hands and try to catch the last child. (_c_) The analysis of the game-rhymes is on pp.
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. The ancient game of Nine Men s Morris is yet played by the boys of Dorset. The boys of a cottage, near Dorchester, had a while ago carved a Marrel pound on a block of stone by the house.
Another word, of similar import, is dik-ma-day in the Lanarkshire version. Two other words occur, namely, thegan in the Lanarkshire, and maycanameecan in the Sussex versions, which are also not to be found in ordinary vocabularies. The two last words appear only once, and cannot, therefore, be used for the purpose of tracing out an original form of the game-rhyme, because on the system of analysis adopted they may be arbitrary introductions and totally unconnected with the original rhymes. This, however, is not the case with the two first-mentioned words, and I am inclined to consider them as forming part of the earliest version. The word dis is carried through no less than ten out of the fourteen variants, the gradation in the forms being as follows:-- dis dass dish diss[y]--duss dossy this--thus --dust --dust[y] What the meaning of this word is it may be impossible to ascertain, though probably Mr. Newell may be correct in his suggestion that it represents the old English word adist, the opposite of ayont, meaning this way, come hither (_Games of American Children_, p. 51). But the point really is, that the version which contains the oldest word-forms would probably be the purest in other respects. The analysis of the whole game confirms this view, as the Scottish and Yorkshire versions are nearly parallel, while the discrepancies begin to creep in with the Shropshire version, reaching their last stage in the versions recorded by Halliwell and from Congleton. Following this line of argument, dik-ma-day becomes first duke, my dear, and then duck, my dear.
The door at the end of my corridor opened out onto the roof. 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.
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Off to prison you must go, You must go, you must go, Off to prison you must go, My fair lady. --Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler). IV. Where are these great baa-lambs going, Baa-lambs going, baa-lambs going, Where are these great baa-lambs going? My fair lady. We are going to London Bridge, London Bridge, London Bridge, We are going to London Bridge, My fair lady. London Bridge is broken down, Broken down, broken down, London Bridge is broken down, My fair lady. [Then verses follow, sung in the same way and with the same refrain, beginning with--] Mend it up with penny loaves. Penny loaves will wash away. Mend it up with pins and needles. Pins and needles they will break.
=_ The first-class whist-player is usually developed gradually. If he possess the faculty of paying close attention to the game while he is playing, nothing should prevent his rapid progress. At first he may care little or nothing for “book” whist, but after some experience with book players, he is rather in danger of running to the other extreme, and putting more book into his game than it will carry. Having passed that stage, his next step is usually to invent some system of his own, and to experiment with every hand he plays. By degrees he finds that all special systems of play have some serious defects which over-balance their advantages, and this discovery gradually brings him back to first principles. If he gets so far safely, his game for all future time will probably be sound, common-sense whist, without any American leads, plain-suit echoes, or four-signals, and free from any attempts to take fourteen tricks with thirteen cards. When a whist-player reaches that point, he is probably as near the first class as the natural limitations of his mental abilities will ever permit him to go. _=THE LAWS=_ will be found at the end of the Whist Family of Games. ILLUSTRATIVE WHIST HANDS. A and B are partners against Y and Z.
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. Spoil Five probably comes next in point of respectability; but Écarté has often fallen into evil hands, and the very name is in some places regarded as synonymous for gambling.
V. There stands a lady on a mountain, Who she is I do not know; All she wants is gold and silver, All she wants is a nice young man. Now she s married I wish her joy, First a girl and then a boy; Seven years after son and daughter, Pray young couple kiss together. Kiss her once, kiss her twice, Kiss her three times three. --Wrotham, Kent (Miss D. Kimball). VI. There stands a lady on the ocean [mountain], Who she is I do not know her; All she wants is gold or silver, All she wants is a nice young man. Choose once, choose twice, Choose three times over. Now you re married I wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy; Seven years old a son and daughter, Play and cuddle and kiss together.
This is taken into an open field on the north side of the church, to be contended for by the youths assembled for that purpose. When the Hood is about to be thrown up, the Plough-bullocks or Boggins, as they are called, dressed in scarlet jackets, are placed amongst the crowd at certain distances. Their persons are sacred, and if amidst the general row the Hood falls into the hands of one of them, the sport begins again. The object of the person who seizes the Hood is to carry off the prize to some public-house in the town, where he is rewarded with such liquor as he chooses to call for. This pastime is said to have been instituted by the Mowbrays, and that the person who furnished the Hood did so as a tenure by which he held some land under the lord. How far this tradition may be founded on fact I do not know, but no person now acknowledges to hold any land by that tenure.--Stonehouse s _Isle of Axholme_, p. 291. W. J.
Any player whose bet has been raised must abandon his hand or meet the raise, with the privilege of raising again in return. Should one player make a bet or raise which no other player will see, he takes the pool without showing his hand, and the cards are shuffled and cut for the next deal. _=30. Calling the Bets.=_ As long as one player raises another’s bets, he gives that player the privilege of raising him again; but if a player who has made a bet is not raised, the others simply betting an equal amount, the first bettor is called, and all betting must cease. The players must then show their hands to the table, in order to decide which wins the pool. _=31.=_ Bets must be actually made by placing the counters in the pool, and no bet is made until the player’s hand has been withdrawn from the counters. Any counters once placed in the pool, and the owner’s hand withdrawn, cannot be taken down again, except by the winner of the pool. _=32.