The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 15

Bitty-base

Bishop Kennet (in _MS. Lansd._ 1033) gives this name as a term for "Prisoner's Base."-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Black Man's Tig

A long rope is tied to a gate or pole, and one of the players holds the end of the rope, and tries to catch another player. When he succeeds in doing so the one captured joins him (by holding hands) and helps to catch the other players. The game is finished when all are caught.-Cork (Miss Keane).

Black Thorn

[Music]

-Earls Heaton, Yorks.

I. Blackthorn!

b.u.t.ter-milk and barley-corn; How many geese have you to-day?

As many as you can catch and carry away.

-Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).

II. Blackthorn! Blackthorn!

Blue milk and barley-corn; How many geese have you to-day?

More than you can catch and carry away.

-Harland and Wilkinson's _Lancashire Folk-lore_, p. 150.

III. Blackthorn!

New milk and barley-corn; How many sheep have you to sell?

More nor yo can catch and fly away wi'.

-Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_.

IV. Blackthorn!

b.u.t.ter-milk and barley-corn; How many sheep have you to-day?

As many as you catch and carry away.

-Earls Heaton, Yorkshire (Herbert Hardy).

(_b_) One set of children stand against a wall, another set stand opposite, facing them. The first set sing the first line, the others replying with the second line, and so with the third and fourth lines.

The two sides then rush over to each other, and the second set are caught. The child who is caught last becomes one of the first set for another game. This is the Earls Heaton version. The Lancashire game, as described by Miss Dendy, is: One child stands opposite a row of children, and the row run over to the opposite side, when the one child tries to catch them. The prisoners made, join the one child, and a.s.sist her in the process of catching the others. The rhyme is repeated in each case until all are caught, the last one out becoming "Blackthorn" for a new game. Harland and Wilkinson describe the game somewhat differently.

Each player has a mark, and after the dialogue the players run over to each other's marks, and if any can be caught before getting home to the opposite mark, he has to carry his captor to the mark, when he takes his place as an additional catcher.

(_c_) Miss Burne's version (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 521) is practically the same as the Earls Heaton game, and Easther in his _Almondbury Glossary_ gives a version practically like the Sheffield.

Mr. Hardy says it is sometimes called "Black-b.u.t.t," when the opposite side cry "Away we cut." Miss Dendy quotes an old Lancashire rhyme, which curiously refers to the different subjects in the Lancashire game rhyme.

It is as follows:-

Little boy, little boy, where were you born?

Way up in Lancashire, under a thorn, Where they sup b.u.t.ter-milk in a ram's horn.

Another version is given in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vii. 285.

(_d_) This is a dramatic game, in which the children seem to personate animals, and to depict events belonging to the history of the flock.

Miss Burne groups it under her "dramatic games."

Blind Bell

A game formerly common in Berwickshire, in which all the players were hoodwinked except the person who was called the Bell. He carried a bell, which he rung, still endeavouring to keep out of the way of his hoodwinked partners in the game. When he was taken, the person who seized him was released from the bandage, and got possession of the bell, the bandage being transferred to him who was laid hold of.-Jamieson.

(_b_) In "The Modern Playmate," edited by Rev. J. G. Wood, this game is described under the name of "Jingling." Mr. Wood says there is a rougher game played at country feasts and fairs in which a pig takes the place of the boy with the bell, but he does not give the locality (p. 7).

Strutt also describes it (_Sports_, p. 317).

Blind Bucky-Davy

In Somersetshire the game of "Blind Man's Buff." Also in Cornwall (see Couch's _Polperro_, p. 173). Pulman says this means "Blind buck and have ye" (Elworthy's _Dialect_).

Blind Harie

A name for "Blind Man's Buff."-Jamieson.

Blind Hob

The Suffolk name for "Blind Man's Buff."-Halliwell's _Dictionary_; Moor's _Suffolk Glossary_.

Blind Man's Buff

I. Come, shepherd, come, shepherd, and count your sheep.

I canna come now, for I'm fast asleep.

If you don't come now they'll all be gone.

What's in my way?

A bottle of hay.

Am I over it?

-Shrewsbury (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 525).

II. How many fingers do I hold up?

Four, three, &c. [at random in reply].

How many horses has your father?

Three [fixed reply].

What colour?

White, red, and grey.

Turn you about three times; Catch whom you may!