Part 10
In other cases the rhymes are used for a purely kissing game, for which see "Kiss in the Ring."
Dropping the Letter
An undescribed Suffolk boys' game.--Moor's _Suffolk Words_, p. 238.
Duck under the Water
Each child chooses a partner, and form in couples standing one before the other, till a long line is formed. Each couple holds a handkerchief as high as they can to form an arch. The couple standing at the end of the line run through the arch just beyond the last couple standing at the top, when they stand still and hold their handkerchief as high as possible, which is the beginning of the second arch; this is repeated by every last couple in succession, so that as many arches as are wanted can be formed.--East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan).
Miss Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_) says the game is played in that county. Formerly in the northern part of the county even married women on May Day played at it under the May garland, which was extended from chimney to chimney across the village street.
Duck at the Table
A boys' game, played with round stones and a table-shaped block of stone.--Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.
Probably the same as Duckstone.
Duck Dance
[Music]
--London (A. B. Gomme).
I saw a ship a sailin', A sailin' on the sea, And oh, it was laden With pretty things for me [thee].
There were comfits in the cabin, And apples in the hold; The sails were made of silk, And the masts were made of gold.
Four and twenty sailors That sat upon the deck, Were four and twenty white mice With chains about their necks.
The captain was a duck, With a packet on his back; And when the ship began to move, The captain cried "Quack! quack!"
--Northamptonshire, _Revue Celtique_, iv. 200; Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, No. ccclxxvii.
(_b_) A number of little girls join hands and form a ring. They all jump round and sing the verses. The game ends by the girls following one of their number in a string, all quacking like ducks.--Northamptonshire.
(_c_) Halliwell does not include it among his games, but simply as a nursery paradox. The tune given is that to which I as a child was taught to sing the verses as a song. We did not know it as a game. The "Quack, quack!" was repeated as another line to the notes of the last bar given, the notes gradually dying away (A. B. Gomme).
Duck Friar
The game of "Leap-frog."--_Apollo Shroving_, 1627, p. 83.
Ducks and Drakes
A pastime in which flat stones or slates are thrown upon the surface of a piece of water, so that they may dip and emerge several times without sinking (Brockett's _North Country Words_). "Neither cross and pile nor ducks and drakes are quite so ancient as hand dandy" (Arbuthnot and Pope, quoted in Todd's _Johnson_).
Halliwell gives the words used in the game both formerly and at the present day. If the stone emerges only once it is a duck, and increasing in the following order:--
2. A duck and a drake, 3. And a halfpenny cake, 4. And a penny to pay the old baker, 5. A hop and a scotch is another notch, 6. Slitherum, slatherum, take her.
--Halliwell's _Dictionary_.
Hen-pen, Duck and mallard, Amen.
--Somersetshire (Holloway's _Dict. of Provincialisms_).
A duck and a drake And a white penny cake.
--Hampshire (Holloway's _Dict. of Provincialisms_).
A duck and a drake And a penny white cake, And a skew ball.
--Peacock's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_.
Moor (_Suffolk Words and Phrases_) gives the names for the number of times the stone emerges, as (1) "a duck;" (2) "a duck an' a drake;" if thrice, "a duck an' a drake an' a fi'epenny cake;" four times is "a duck an' a drake an' a fi'epenny cake, an' a penny to pah the baker." If more than four, "a duck," "a duck an' a drake," &c., are added. These distinctions are iterated quickly to correspond in time as nearly as may be with the dips of the stone. A flattish stone is evidently the best for this sport.
(_b_) This game is also given by Mr. Addy in his _Sheffield Glossary_, and by Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_), Brogden (_Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_), Lowsley (_Berkshire Glossary_), Nares' _Glossary_, and Baker's _Northants Glossary_. Miss Courtenay gives "Scutter" and "Tic Tac Mollard" as Cornish names for the game (_West Cornwall Glossary_). See also Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 139, and Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 326.
Butler, in his _Hudibras_ (p. ii. canto iii. l. 302), makes it one of the important qualifications of his conjurer to tell--
What figur'd slates are best to make On wat'ry surface _duck_ or _drake_.
The following description of this sport is given by Minucius Felix, ed. 1712, p. 28, which evinces its high antiquity: "Pueros videmus certatim gestientes, testarum in mare jaculationibus ludere. Is lusus est, testam teretem, jactatione fluctuum lævigatam, legere de litore: eam testam plano situ digitis comprehensam, inclinem ipsum atque humilem, quantum potest, super undas irrorare: ut illud jaculum vel dorsum maris raderet, vel enataret, dum leni impetu labitur; vel summis fluctibus tonsis emicaret, emergeret, dum assiduo saltu sublevatur. Is se in pueris victorem ferebat, cujus testa et procurreret longius, et frequentius exsiliret."
"From this pastime," says Moor, "has probably arisen the application of the term to a spendthrift--of whose approaching ruin we should thus speak: 'Ah, he'ave made fine ducks and drakes of a's money, that a' have.'"--_Suffolk Words._
Duckstone
A large stone called the Duckstone or Duck-table is placed on the ground, generally with a wall for a background, but this is of little consequence. Several boys take a stone each, and a place pretty near the Duckstone is chosen for "home." One of the boys puts his stone on the Duckstone, and he is called the Tenter. He has to guard the home and catch the other boys if he can. Each boy in turn throws his stone at the stone on the Duck-table and immediately runs home. The Tenter tries to catch him before he can touch the wall or post or whatever is chosen for the home. If the Tenter can catch him he becomes Tenter, and puts his stone on the Duckstone, and the original Tenter takes his turn in throwing. One rule of the game is that the Tenter's stone must always be on the Duck-table when he is trying to catch a boy, so if it is knocked off it must be replaced before he can try to catch the boy running "home." The chance of getting home is increased for the boy who knocks it off.--North-West Lincolnshire (Rev. ---- Roberts and Miss Peacock).
(_b_) Similar versions are from Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy), Ireland (_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 265), Peacock (_Mauley and Corringham Glossary_). Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) gives this game with the following addition: If a duck falls short of the Duckstone, and the one whose duck is on the stone sees that he can _wand_ or _span_ with his hand the distance between the duck thus thrown and the Duckstone, he shouts out "Wands," and if he can wand or span the distance he takes his duck off, and the duck thus thrown is put on. Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_), Darlington (South Cheshire), Baker (_Northants Glossary_), and Brogden (_Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_), also give this game. Elworthy (_West Somerset Words_) calls it "Duck," and "Ducks off" and "Cobbs off" in Dorsetshire. In London the boy repeats the words, "Gully, gully, all round the hole, one duck on," while he is playing (_Strand Magazine_, November 1891). Newell (_Games_, p. 188) calls it "Duck on a Rock."
Duffan Ring
Name for "Cat and Mouse" in Cornwall.--_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 57.
Dumb Crambo
An undescribed game mentioned in Moor's _Suffolk Words_, p. 238.
Dumb Motions
Two sides are chosen, which stand apart from each other inside the line of their den. One side chooses a trade, and goes to the opposite side imitating working at the trade and giving the initial letters of it. If the opposite side guesses the name of the trade, the players run to their own den, being chased by their opponents. If any of the players are caught they must go to the opposite side. In turn the opposite side chooses a trade, and imitates the actions practised.--Cork, Ireland (Miss Keane).
This is called "An Old Woman from the Wood" in Dorsetshire. The children form themselves into two ranks.
The first rank says: Here comes an old 'oman from the wood. The second party answers: What cans't thee do? First Party: Do anythin'. Second Party: Work away.
This the children proceed to do, some by pretending to sew, some to wash, some to dig, some to knit, without any instruments to do it with. If the opposite side guess what they are doing, they change sides. This game, Miss Summers believes, is very old, and has been played by several generations in the village of Hazelbury Bryan.--Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 230).
See "Trades."
Dump
A boys' amusement in Yorkshire, in vogue about half a century ago, but now believed to be nearly obsolete. It is played in this manner. The lads crowd round and place their fists endways, the one on the other, till they form a high pile of hands. Then a boy, who has one hand free, knocks the piled fists off one by one, saying to every boy as he strikes his fist away, "What's there, Dump?" He continues this process till he comes to the last fist, when he exclaims:--
What's there? Cheese and bread, and a mouldy halfpenny! 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 shells; 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 superstitions also attach to the tree. It is possible from these circumstances 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.
[Illustration]
See "Bulliheisle," "Wind up the Bush Faggot," "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. cccxxxv., 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 circumference 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 pass 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 haycock 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."
Fippeny Morrell
"Twice three stones, set in a crossed square, where he wins the game that can set his three along in a row, and that is fippeny morrell I trow."--_Apollo Shroving_, 1626.
See "Nine Men's Morice," "Noughts and Crosses."
Fire, Air, and Water
The players seat themselves in a circle. One of the players has a ball, to which a string is fastened. He holds the string that he may easily draw the ball back again after it is thrown. The possessor of the ball then throws it to one in the circle, calling out the name of either of the elements he pleases. This player must, before ten can be counted, give the name of an inhabitant of that element. When "Fire" is called, strict silence must be observed or a forfeit paid.--Cork, Ireland (Miss Keane).
The players were seated in a half-circle, and the possessor of the ball faced the others. There was no string attached to the ball, but it was necessary that it should hit the child it was thrown to. When "Fire" was called, "Salamander" and "Ph[oe]nix" were allowed to be said. The third time "Fire" was called, silence was observed, and every player bowed the head. We called it "Earth, Air, Fire, and Water." A forfeit had to be paid for every mistake.--London (A. B. Gomme).
It seems probable that a survival of fire-worship is shown by this game.
Fivestones
This game was played by a newspaper boy at Richmond Station for me as follows:--He had five square pieces of tile or stone about the size of dice. He took all five pieces in the palm of the hand first, then threw them up and caught them on the back of the hand, and then from the back of the hand into the palm. Four of the stones were then thrown on the ground; the fifth was thrown up, one stone being picked up from the ground, and the descending fifth stone caught in the same hand; the other three pieces were next picked up in turn. Then two were picked up together in the same manner twice, then one, then three, then all four at once, the fifth stone being thrown up and caught with each movement. All five were then thrown up and caught on the back of the hand, and then thrown from the back and caught in the palm. When he dropped one, he picked it up between his outstretched fingers while the other stones remained on the back of the hand; then he tossed and caught it likewise. Then after throwing up the five stones and catching them on the back of the hand and the reverse, all five being kept in the palm, one was thrown up, and another deposited on the ground before the descending stone was caught. This was done to the three others in turn. Then with two at a time twice, then one and three, then all four together, then from the palm to the back of the hand, and again to the palm. This completed one game. If mistakes were made another player took the stones. Marks were taken for successful play. This boy called the game "Dabs."--A. B. Gomme.
In South Notts this game was called "Snobs." It was played with small stones or marbles. There were nine sets of tricks. First One-ers (of which there were five in the set), then Two-ers (two in set), Three-ers (three in set), Four-ers (four in set), Four Squares (four in set), Trotting Donkeys (eight in set, I believe), Fly-catchers (six or seven in set), Magic (five in set), and Magic Fly-catchers (five in set). One-ers is played thus:--The five stones are thrown into the air and caught on the back of the hand. If all are caught they are simply tossed up again and caught in the hollow of the hand, but if any are not caught they have to be picked up, one by one, another stone being at the same time thrown into the air and caught with the one picked up in the hand. Two-ers, Three-ers, and Four-ers, are played in the same way, except that the stones not caught on the back of the hand have to be arranged in twos, threes, and fours respectively by the hand on which the caught stones are lying meanwhile, and then each lot has to be picked up altogether. If the number that fall when the stones are first thrown up won't allow of this, the player has to drop the required number (but no more) from his hand. In Magic the play is just the same as in One-ers, except that instead of only throwing up a single stone and catching it as the others are in turn picked up, the whole number, except those remaining to be picked up, are thrown and caught. In Four Squares, four of the stones are arranged in a square, each of them is then picked up, whilst the remaining stone is flung upwards and caught; the one picked up is then tossed up, and the one originally tossed up is put down in the place of the other, which is caught as it descends, and the process repeated "all round the square." Trotting Donkeys is similarly played, except that the four stones are arranged in a line--not in a square--and I believe there is some other slight difference, but I forget what. Fly-catchers is played like One-ers, except that the stone thrown into the air while the others are being picked up, is not simply caught by being allowed to fall into the hand, but by an outward movement of the hand is _pounced on_, hawk-fashion, from above. Magic Fly-catchers is played in precisely the same way, except that as in simple Magic, not one stone, but all are thrown up and caught--that is, if there are four on the ground one only is thrown up for the first, two for the second, three for the third, and so on until they are all picked up. This is, of course, the most difficult part of all, and, in fact, only experts were expected to do it. Every failure means "out," and then your opponent has his turn. The winner is the one who gets through first. Such is the game as I remember it, but I have an uneasy suspicion that I have missed something out. I seem to remember one trick in which all the stones on the ground had to be picked up at once _where they lay_--scrambled up so to speak. Or it may be (and, in fact, I think it was) that sometimes, to add to the difficulty of the game, we picked up the groups of two, three, and four in Two-ers, Three-ers, and Four-ers in this fashion, instead of first placing them together.--Epworth, Doncaster (C. C. Bell).
In Wakefield the set of pot checks, which represents five hucklebones, now consists of four checks and a ball about the size of a large marble. The checks are something like dice, but only two opposite sides are plain, the other four being fluted. The table played on is generally a doorstep, and it is made ready by drawing a ring upon it with anything handy which will make a mark. There are twelve figures or movements to be gone through as follows. Some have special names, but I do not learn that all have.