The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 58

Pa.s.s on, pa.s.s on, pa.s.sy on the slipper; The best fun we ever had was pa.s.sing on the slipper.

Holloway (_Dict. of Provincialisms_) says this game was well known in Somerset, Hants, Suss.e.x, but now is almost out of fashion. He describes it as being played without words. The child who has to find the shoe stands in the centre of the circle. The chief amus.e.m.e.nt arises from the one in the circle who has the slipper striking the one who stands up (the searcher) while he or she is steadily looking for it in an opposite direction. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 387) also describes this game.

Hunt the Staigie

A boys' game. One is chosen to be the Staigie (little stallion). The other players scatter themselves over the playground. The Staigie locks his fingers into each other. He then repeats the words-

Hunt the Staigie, Huntie, untie, staige, Ailleman, ailleman, aigie,

and rushes off with his hands locked, and tries to touch one of the players. He must not unlock his hands till he has caught one. When he has captured one, the two join hands and hunt for another. When another is caught, he joins the two. This goes on till all are hunted down.-Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

[Ill.u.s.tration]

See "Chickidy Hand," "Whiddy."

Hunting

[Music]

-Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy).

[Music]

-Epworth (C. C. Bell).

I. Oh, a-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go; We'll catch a little fox and put him in a box, And never let him go.

-Bath (Miss Large).

II. Hunting we will go, brave boys, Hunting we will go; We'll catch an old fox And put him in a box, For a-hunting we will go.

Halt! shoulder arms! fire!

-Horncastle, North Kelsey, Lincoln (Miss Peac.o.c.k).

III. O have you seen the Shah, O have you seen the Shah?

He lights his pipe on a star-light night, O have you seen the Shah?

For a-hunting we will go, A-hunting we will go; We'll catch a fox and put him in a box, A-hunting we will go.

-Epworth, Doncaster (C. C. Bell).

(_b_) The players march two by two, all singing. The first pair let go hands, separate, and skip widely apart, still singing. Gradually, in this manner, two separate lines are formed, until, following each other and singing, the pairs come together again, join hands, and march and sing in couplets linked.

The Bath game is played by the children standing in two rows facing each other, and clapping hands and singing the verse. At the same time the two children facing each other at the top of the lines join hands and trip down and up between the lines. Their hands are unclasped, and the two children run down the outside of the lines, one running on each side, and meet at the bottom of the lines, where they stand. The two children now standing at the top proceed in the same way: this is continued until all the children have done the same. A ring is then formed, when the children again clap and sing. Any number can play at this game.

In the Epworth version the children range themselves in double rank at one end of the room or playground, and march down to the other end hand in hand. At the bottom they loose hands and divide, the first rank turning right, the second left, and march back in two single files to the other end again, where they re-form as at first, and repeat their manuvre, singing the verses alternately.

The Lincolnshire game is played by the children walking two and two in a circle round one of their companions, singing. The players then stand facing the child in the centre, and place their hands on their partners'

shoulders. After the lines are sung the centre child cries out, "Halt!

Shoulder arms! Fire!" at which words each child kisses his partner. If the commander sees any one hesitate, or avoid kissing, he runs forward and takes the defaulter's place, leaving him to fill the middle position.

Similar versions are played at Earls Heaton (Mr. Hardy), Forest of Dean (Miss Matthews), Ellesmere (Burne, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 574), Derbyshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, i. 386).

Hurling

A game played with a ball. The players are divided into two equal parties, each of which tries to secure and keep the ball in their possession. The prize is a ball made of cork, covered with silver.-Courtney's _West Cornwall Glossary_.

In Taylor's _Antiquitates Curiosae_, p. 144, it is stated:-"The game of hurling consisted in throwing or hurling a ball of wood about three inches in diameter, and covered with plated silver, sometimes gilt. On the ball was frequently a Cornish motto allusive to the game, and signifying that fair play was best. Success depended on catching the ball dexterously when dealt, and conveying it away through all the opposition of the adverse party, or, if that was impossible, to throw it into the hands of a partner, who, in his turn, was to exert his utmost efforts to convey it to his own goal, which was often three or four miles distant from that of his adversaries."

T. Durfey's _Collin's Walk through London_, 1690, p. 192, says: "Hurling is an ancient sport us'd to this day in the countys of Cornwall and Devon, when once a year the hardy young fellows of each county meet; and a cork ball thinly plated with silver being thrown up between 'em, they run, bustle, and fight for it, to the witty dislocating of many a shrew'd neck, or for the sport of telling how bravely their arms or legs came to be broke, when they got home." It is fully described by Carew in his _Survey of Cornwall_, 1602, p. 73.

It is also a very ancient Irish game, and Mr. Kinahan says: "Many places are called after it: such as, Killahurla, the hurlers' church; Gortnahurla, the field of the hurlers; Greenanahurla, the sunny place of the hurlers; this, however, is now generally corrupted into hurling-green. The hurling-green where the famous match was played by the people of Wexford against those of Cather (now divided into the counties of Carlow and Wicklow), and where the former got the name of yellow bellies, from the colour of the scarfs they wore round their waist, is a sunny flat on the western side of North Wicklow Gap, on the road from Gorey to Trinnahely. There are also many other different names that record the game."-_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 266.

See "Bandy," "Camp," "Football," "Hockey," "Hood," "Shinty."

Hurly-burly

An undescribed boys' game. In it the following rhyme is used-

Hurly-burly, trumpy trace, The cow stands in the market-place; Some goes far, and some goes near, Where shall this poor sinner steer?

-Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.

For a similar rhyme see "Hot c.o.c.kles."

Huss

Children play a game which is accompanied by a song beginning-

Hussing and bussing will not do, But go to the gate, knock, and ring- Please, Mrs. Brown, is Nellie within?

-Parish's _Dictionary of the Suss.e.x Dialect_.

Hustle Cap

A boys' game, played by tossing up halfpence. It is mentioned in _Peregrine Pickle_, cap. xvi. Cope (_Hampshire Glossary_) says, "Halfpence are placed in a cap and thrown up, a sort of 'pitch-and-toss.'"

Hynny-pynny

A peculiar game at marbles, sometimes called "Hyssy-pyssy," played in some parts of Devon and Somerset. A hole of some extent was made in an uneven piece of ground, and the game was to shoot the marbles at some object beyond the hole without letting them tumble into it.

The game occasionally commenced by a ceremony of no very delicate description, which sufficed to render the fallen marble still more ignominious.-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.