The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 21

Give me another to stick in my other To carry her a little bit farther.

-Belfast (W. H. Patterson).

II. London Bridge is broken, And what shall I do for a token?

Give me a pin to stick in my thumb And carry my lady to London.

-_Notes and Queries_, 4th series, xii. 479.

III. Give me a pin to stick in my chin (? cushion) To carry a lady to London; London Bridge is broken down And I must let my lady down.

-Northall's _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 353.

(_b_) In this game two children cross hands, grasping each other's wrists and their own as well: they thus form a seat on which a child can sit and be carried about. At the same time they sing the verse.

Carrying the Queen a Letter

The King and Queen have a throne formed by placing two chairs a little apart, with a shawl spread from chair to chair. A messenger is sent into the room with a letter to the Queen, who reads it, and joins the King in a courteous entreaty that the bearer of the missive will place himself between them. When he has seated himself on the shawl, up jumps the King and Queen, and down goes the messenger on the floor.-Bottesford and Anderly (Lincolnshire), and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peac.o.c.k).

(_b_) This is virtually the same game as "Amba.s.sador," described by Grose as played by sailors on some inexperienced fellow or landsman.

Between the two chairs is placed a pail of water, into which the victim falls.

Cashhornie

A game played with clubs by two opposite parties of boys, the aim of each party being to drive a ball into a hole belonging to their antagonists, while the latter strain every nerve to prevent this.-Jamieson.

Castles

A game at marbles. Each boy makes a small pyramid of three as a base, and one on the top. The players aim at these from a distant stroke with balsers, winning such of the castles as they may in turn knock down (Lowsley's _Glossary of Berkshire Words_). In London, the marble alluded to as "balser" was called "bonsor" or "bouncer" (J. P. Emslie).

See "c.o.c.kly Jock," "Cogs."

Cat and Dog

An ancient game played in Angus and Lothian. Three play, and they are provided with clubs. These clubs are called "dogs." The players cut out two holes, each about a foot in diameter, and seven inches in depth. The distance between them is about twenty-six feet. One stands at each hole with a club. A piece of wood about four inches long and one inch in diameter, called a Cat, is thrown from the one hole towards the other by a third person. The object is to prevent the Cat from getting into the hole. Every time that it enters the hole, he who has the club at that hole loses the club, and he who threw the Cat gets possession both of the club and of the hole, while the former possessor is obliged to take charge of the Cat. If the Cat be struck, he who strikes it changes places with the person who holds the other club; and as often as these positions are changed one is counted in the game by the two who hold the clubs, and who are viewed as partners.-Jamieson.

(_b_) This is not unlike the "Stool-Ball" described by Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 76), but it more nearly resembles "Club-Ball," an ancient English game (ibid., p. 83). The game of "Cat," played with sticks and a small piece of wood, rising in the middle, so as to rebound when struck on either side, is alluded to in _Poor Robin's Almanack_ for 1709, and by Brand. Leigh (_Cheshire Glossary_) gives "Scute" as another name for the game of "Cat," probably from _scute_ (O.W.), for boat, which it resembles in shape.

See "Cudgel," "Kit-cat," "Tip-cat."

Cat-Beds

The name of a game played by young people in Perthshire. In this game, one, un.o.bserved by all the rest, cuts with a knife the turf in very unequal angles. These are all covered, and each player puts his hand on what he supposes to be the smallest, as every one has to cut off the whole surface of his division. The rate of cutting is regulated by a throw of the knife, and the person who throws is obliged to cut as deep as the knife goes. He who is last in getting his bed cut up is bound to carry the whole of the clods, crawling on his hands and feet, to a certain distance measured by the one next to him, who throws the knife through his legs. If the bearer of the clods let any of them fall, the rest have a right to pelt him with them. They frequently lay them very loosely on, that they may have the pleasure of pelting.-Jamieson.

Cat's Cradle

One child holds a piece of string joined at the ends on his upheld palms, a single turn being taken over each, and by inserting the middle finger of each hand under the opposite turn, crosses the string from finger to finger in a peculiar form. Another child then takes off the string on his fingers in a rather different way, and it then a.s.sumes a second form. A repet.i.tion of this manuvre produces a third form, and so on. Each of these forms has a particular name, from a fancied resemblance to the object-barn-doors, bowling-green, hour-gla.s.s, pound, net, fiddle, fish-pond, diamonds, and others.-_Notes and Queries_, vol.

xi. p. 421.

The following forms are those known to me, with their names. They are produced seriatim.

1. The cradle.

2. The soldier's bed.

3. Candles.

4. The cradle inversed, or manger.

5. Soldier's bed again, or diamonds.

6. Diamonds, or cat's eyes.

7. Fish in dish.

8. Cradle as at first.

The different orders or arrangements must be taken from the hands of one player by another without disturbing the arrangement.-A. B. Gomme.

(_b_) Nares suggests that the proper name is "Cratch Cradle," and is derived from the archaic word _cratch_, meaning a manger. He gives several authorities for its use. The first-made form is not unlike a manger. Moor (_Suffolk Words_) gives the names as cat's cradle, barn-doors, bowling-green, hour-gla.s.s, pound, net, diamonds, fish-pond, fiddle. A supposed resemblance originated them. Britton (_Beauties of Wiltshire_, Glossary) says the game in London schools is called "Scratch-scratch" or "Scratch-cradle."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cat's Cradle "Taking off" Soldier's Bed

"Taking off" Candles "Taking off"

Cat's Cradle (upside down) Cat's Eyes Fish.]

The game is known to savage peoples. Professor Haddon noted it among the Torres Straits people, who start the game in the same manner as we do, but continue it differently (_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. xix. p. 361); and Dr. Tylor has pointed out the significance of these string puzzles among savage peoples in _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, ix. 26.

Cat-gallows

A child's game, consisting of jumping over a stick placed at right angles to two others fixed in the ground.-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

(_b_) In Ross and Stead's _Holderness Glossary_ this is called "Cat-gallas," and is described as three sticks placed in the form of a gallows for boys to jump over. So called in consequence of being of sufficient height to hang cats from. Also mentioned in Peac.o.c.k's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_ and Elworthy's _West Somerset Words_, Brogden's _Provincial Words, Lincs._, d.i.c.kinson's _c.u.mberland Glossary_, Atkinson's _Cleveland Glossary_, Brockett's _North Country Words_, Evans' _Leicestershire Glossary_, Baker's _Northants Glossary_, and Darlington's _South Cheshire Glossary_. On one of the stalls in Worcester Cathedral, figured in Wright's _Archaeological Essays_, ii.

117, is a carving which represents three rats busily engaged in hanging a cat on a gallows of this kind.

Cat i' the Hole

A game well known in Fife, and perhaps in other counties. If seven boys are to play, six holes are made at certain distances. Each of the six stands at a hole, with a short stick in his hand; the seventh stands at a certain distance holding a ball. When he gives the word, or makes the sign agreed upon, all the six change holes, each running to his neighbour's hole, and putting his stick in the hole which he has newly seized. In making this change, the boy who has the ball tries to put it into an empty hole. If he succeeds in this, the boy who had not his stick (for the stick is the Cat) in the hole to which he had run is put out, and must take the ball. There is often a very keen contest whether the one shall get his stick, or the other the ball, or Cat, first put into the hole. When the Cat _is in the hole_, it is against the laws of the game to put the ball into it.-Jamieson.

(_b_) Kelly, in his _Scottish Proverbs_, p. 325, says, "'Tine cat, tine game;' an allusion to a play called 'Cat i' the Hole,' and the English 'Kit-cat.' Spoken when men at law have lost their princ.i.p.al evidence."

See "Cat and Dog," "Cudgel," "Kit-cat."

Cat after Mouse

This game, sometimes called "Threading the Needle," is played by children forming a ring, with their arms extended and hands clasped; one-the Mouse-goes outside the circle and gently pulls the dress of one of the players, who thereupon becomes the Cat, and is bound to follow wherever the Mouse chooses to go-either in or out of the ring-until caught, when he or she takes the place formerly occupied in the ring by the Cat, who in turn becomes Mouse, and the game is recommenced.-Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 214).