The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 93

The leg's broke.

Take the chair.

Chair"$1gone to be mended.

I suppose I must come myself?

The Mother here wrings her hands out of the water in the washing-tub and comes in. She looks about and misses Monday.

Where's Monday?

Oh, please, Mother, please, I couldn't help it; but some one came to beg a light for her pipe, and when I went for it she took Monday off.

Why, that's the witch!

The Mother pretends to beat the eldest daughter, tells her to be more careful another time, and to be sure and not let the pot boil over. The eldest daughter cries, and promises to be more careful, and the Mother goes again to the wash-tub.

The same thing occurs again. The Witch comes and asks-

Please, will you lend me your tinder-box? My fire's out.

Yes, certainly, if you'll bring it back directly.

You shall have it in half-an-hour.

While the tinder-box is being looked for she runs off with Tuesday. Then the pot boils over, and the same dialogue is repeated. The Mother comes and finds Tuesday gone. This is repeated for all the seven children in turn, different articles, gridiron, poker, &c, being borrowed each time.

Finally, the eldest daughter is taken off too. There is no one now to watch the pot, so it boils over, and makes so much noise that the Mother hears it and comes to see why it is. Finding her eldest daughter gone too, she goes after her children to the Witch's house. A dialogue ensues between the Witch and the Mother. The Mother asks-

Is this the way to the Witch's house?

There's a red bull that way!

I'll go this way.

There's a mad cow that way!

I'll go this way.

There's a mad dog that way!

She then insists on entering the house to look for her children. The Witch will not admit her, and says-

Your boots are too dirty.

I'll take my boots off.

Your stockings are too dirty.

I'll take them off.

Your feet are dirty.

I'll cut them off.

The blood will run over the threshold.

I'll wrap them up in a blanket.

The blood will run through.

This enrages the Mother, and she pushes her way into the supposed house, and looks about, and calls her children. She goes to one and says-

This tastes like my Monday.

The Witch tells her it's a barrel of pork.

No, no, this is my Monday; run away home.

Upon this Monday jumps up from her crouching or kneeling posture [the children were generally put by the Witch behind some chairs all close together in one corner of the room], and runs off, followed by all the others and their Mother. The Witch tries to catch one, and if successful that child becomes Witch next time.-A. B. Gomme.

A probable explanation of this game is that it ill.u.s.trates some of the practices and customs connected with fire-worship and the worship of the hearth, and that the pot is a magical one, and would only boil over when something wrong had occurred and the Mother's presence was necessary.

The pot boils over directly a child is taken away, and appears to cease doing this when the Mother comes in. It is remarkable, too, that the Witch should want to borrow a light from the fire; the objection to the giving of fire out of the house is a well-known and widely-diffused superst.i.tion, the possession of a brand from the house-fire giving power to the possessor over the inmates of a house. The mention of the spitting on the hearth in the Sheffield version, and dirtying the hearth in the London version, give confirmation to the theory that the desecration of the fire or hearth is the cause of the pot boiling over, and that the spirit of the hearth or fire is offended at the sacrilege.

The Witch, too, may be unable to get possession of a child until she has something belonging to the house. The journey of the Mother to the Witch's house in search of her children, the obstacles put in her path, and the mention of the spilling of blood on the threshold, are incidents which have great significance. Why the "keeling" or skimming of the contents of the pot should be so difficult a task for the eldest daughter that the Mother is obliged to come herself, is not so clear; the skimming is of course to prevent the pot boiling over, and the pot may be supposed to take the place of the Mother or Guardian of the hearth, and tell when misfortune or trouble is at hand. Or the "boiling over" (which, if continued, would extinguish the fire and sully the stone) may be an offence to the hearth spirit, who ceases then to protect the inmates of the house. Fairies are said to have power over the inmates of a house when the threshold and kitchen utensils are left dirty and uncared for. Thus on the theories accompanying the ancient house ritual, this extraordinary game a.s.sumes a rational aspect, and it is not too much to suggest that this explanation is the correct one.

In the game of "Witch" practically the same incidents occur, and nearly the same dialogue, but the significant elements of pot-boiling and fire-protection do not appear in that game. It is not certain whether we have two independent games, or whether "The Witch" is this game, the incidents of pot-boiling and the fire-protection having been lost in its transmission to more modern notions. Although so closely allied, these games are not one at the present day, and are therefore treated separately. Newell (_Games_, p. 218) gives some versions of "Witch"

which show a connection between that game and this. See "Keeling the Pot," "Witch."

Mount the Tin

One child throws a tin (any kind of tin will do) to some distance, and then walks towards it without looking round. The other children, in the meantime, hide somewhere near. The child who threw the tin has to guard it, and at the same time try to find those who are hiding. If he sees one he must call the name, and run to strike the tin with his foot. He does this until each one has been discovered. As they are seen they must stand out. The one who was first found has to guard the tin next time.

Should one of the players be able to strike the tin while the keeper is absent, that player calls out, "Hide again." They can then all hide until the same keeper discovers them again.-Beddgelert (Mrs. Williams).

See "New Squat."

Mouse and the Cobbler

One girl stands up and personates a mother, another pretends to be a mouse, and crouches behind a chair in a corner. The mother says to another player-

Go and get your father's shirt.

This player goes to the chair to look for the shirt, and is tickled or touched by the one hiding. She rushes back and calls out-

Mother, there's a mouse.

Go and get your father's coat.

There's a mouse.

Go and get your father's watch and chain.

There's a mouse.

The Mother then goes to see herself. The second time she is scratched and chased. When caught she takes the Mouse's place.-Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase).

This is evidently the same game as "Ghost in the Garden" and "Ghost in the Copper," in a decaying stage. There is no _raison d'etre_ for either mouse or cobbler. Probably these words are a corruption of the older "Ghost in the Copper."

m.u.f.fin Man

[Music]

-Earls Heaton (H. Hardy).

[Music]

-Congleton Workhouse (Miss A. E. Twemlow).

I. Have you seen the m.u.f.fin man, the m.u.f.fin man, the m.u.f.fin man, Have you seen the m.u.f.fin man that lives in Drury Lane O?

Yes, I've seen the m.u.f.fin man, the m.u.f.fin man, the m.u.f.fin man; Yes, I've seen the m.u.f.fin man who lives in Drury Lane O.

-Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy).