The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 34

Where's my share?

I put it on the shelf, and the cat got it.

Where's the cat?

She's run nine miles through the wood.

Where's the wood?

T' fire burnt it.

Where's the fire?

T' waters sleekt (extinguished) it.

Where's the water?

T' oxen drank it.

Where's the oxen?

T' butcher killed 'em.

Where's the butcher?

Upon the church tops cracking nuts, and you may go and eat the sh.e.l.ls; and them as speaks first shall have nine nips, nine scratches, and nine boxes over the lug!

Every one then endeavours to refrain from speaking in spite of mutual nudges and grimaces, and he who first allows a word to escape is punished by the others in the various methods adopted by schoolboys. In some places the game is played differently. The children pile their fists in the manner described above; then one, or sometimes all of them, sing:

I've built my house, I've built my wall; I don't care where my chimneys fall!

The merriment consists in the bustle and confusion occasioned by the rapid withdrawal of the hands (Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 225).

Compare Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 529.

Northall (_Folk Rhymes_, p. 418) gives the following rhymes as said in Warwickshire while the fists are being piled on one another:-

Here's one hammer on the block, My men, my men; There's one hammer, &c., my man John.

Dibble the can, blow bellows, blow, Fire away, lads, for an hour or so.

See "Dish-a-loof," "Sacks."

Dumps

A game at marbles or taw, played with holes scooped in the ground (Roxburgh, Jamieson). Grose gives _dump_ as signifying "a deep hole of water" (_Provincial Glossary_).

Dust-point

A game in which boys placed their points in a heap, and threw at them with a stone. Weber and Nares give wrong explanations. It is alluded to in Cotton's Works, 1734, p. 184.

I'll venter on their heads my brindled cow, With any boy at dust-point they shall play.

-Peacham's _Thalia's Banquet_, 1620.

Nares (_Glossary_) suggests that this game and blow-point resembled the game of Push-pin. See also Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Eller Tree

A number of young men and women stand in a line, a tall girl at one end of the line representing the tree. They then begin to wrap round her, saying, "The old eller tree grows thicker and thicker." When they have all got round her (the tree), they jump all together, calling out, "A bunch of rags, a bunch of rags," and try to tread on each other's toes.-Sheffield, Yorks (S. O. Addy).

(_b_) The tree is the alder. It abounds in the North of England more than in any other part of the kingdom, and seems always to have been there held in great respect and veneration. Many superst.i.tions also attach to the tree. It is possible from these circ.u.mstances that the game descends from an old custom of encircling the tree as an act of worship, and the allusion to the "rags" bears at least a curious relationship to tree worship. If this conclusion is correct, the particular form of the game preserved by Mr. Addy may be the parent form of all games in which the act of winding is indicated. There is more reason for this when we consider how easy the notion of clock-winding would creep in after the old veneration for the sacred alder tree had ceased to exist.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

See "Bulliheisle," "Wind up the Bush f.a.ggot," "Wind up the Watch."

Ezzeka

Old Ezzeka did one day stand Upon a barrel top; The bung flew out, and all at once It went off with a pop.

-Dronfield (S. O. Addy).

This game is usually played in a house or schoolroom, by boys and girls.

A boy or girl is chosen who is considered to be able to stand a joke. He sits on a chair. A stool is put behind, upon which a boy called "Ezzeka"

stands. Then the other boys and girls in the room sing the lines. As they are finished, Ezzeka, who has a bottle of water in his hand, takes out the cork, and pours the water upon his victim's head. This game may be compared with the game of "King Arthur" mentioned by Brand (_Pop.

Antiq._, ii. 393).

Father's Fiddle

This is a boys' game. One boy says to another, "Divv (do) ye ken (know) aboot my father's fiddle?" On replying that he does not, the questioner takes hold of the other's right hand with his left, and stretches out the arm. With his right hand he touches the arm gently above the elbow, and says, "My father had a fiddle, an' he brook (broke) it here, an' he brook it here" (touching it below the elbow), "an' he brook it throw the middle," and comes down with a sharp stroke on the elbow-joint.-Keith, Fochabers (Rev. W. Gregor).

This is probably the same game as that printed by Halliwell, No.

cccx.x.xv., to which the following rhyme applied:-

My father was a Frenchman, He bought for me a fiddle; He cut me here, he cut me here, He cut me right in the middle.

Feed the Dove

An undescribed game mentioned in an old poem called _Christmas_ (i.

285), quoted in Ellis's Brand, i. 517: "Young men and maidens now at 'Feed the Dove' (with laurel leaf in mouth) play."

Find the Ring

O the grand old Duke of York He had ten thousand men, He marched them up the hill ago And he marched them down again.

And when they were up they were up, And when they were down they were down, And when they were half-way up the hill They were neither up nor down.

-Sheffield (S. O. Addy).

A ring of chairs is formed, and the players sit on them. A piece of string long enough to go round the inner circ.u.mference of the chairs is procured. A small ring is put upon the string, the ends of which are then tied. Then one of the players gets up from his chair and stands in the centre. The players sitting on the chairs take the string into their hands and pa.s.s the ring round from one to another, singing the lines. If the person standing in the centre can find out in whose hand the ring is, he sits down, and his place is taken by the one who had the ring.

The game is sometimes played round a hayc.o.c.k in the hayfield.

Miss Dendy sends a similar rhyme from Monton, Lancashire, where it is known simply as a marching game. For similar rhymes, see Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 3.

See "Paddy from Home," "Tip it."