Part 2

Perhaps you think these are all the duty-games they play, but there are a good many more, such as FLIES ROUND THE JAM-POT and HOT COCKLES AND HOT MUSTARD (rather like BUNNY RABBIT) and SHOOTING THE MOON (played with caps and spittle) and YANK HIM OVER and UPSETTING THE APPLE-CART and WEAK HORSES (played against a lamp-post where you pile yourselves as high as possible) and STEPPING-STONES (difficult) and GLORY and FISHING FOR OYSTERS and TICKLERS and COUNTRY (or NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST) and BUMPER (or BUMPUMS) and SMASHING YOUR GRANDMA’S WINDOWS and BACKY-O and ROMAN CANDLES (or THUMBS UP: very difficult) and CHINESE ORDERS and CHINESE YUM-YUM and KING JOHN SAYS SO and DEAD SOLDIERS and SALMON FISHING and MISCHIEF and PULLING LEGS and FOLLOW MY LEADER (yes; duty) and PIGGY BACKS and WHEELBARROWS and JOCKY WHACK and SWIMMING IN BLUE WATER. SWIMMING IN BLUE WATER is played like this:

“One boy stoops down in bending attitude, and another boy lays on his back crossways, and does the action of swimming, if the boy who is swimming falls off he has to be down”--

and CARRYING THE OLD WOMAN’S WASHING and MESSENGERS (or MESSAGES) and ELEPHANTS’ TRUNKS AND TAILS and SKINNING A RABBIT and MOGGIES[D] ON THE WALL and SOPPY SOLDIER and TAILOR.

And if you’re not yet tired of duty-games, I will tell you one or two more. There’s PICKING LEAVES and SCISSORS and THROUGH THE MOON and PULLING BONES OUT OF FISHES and PORTER COLLECTING TICKETS (or TICKET PUNCHING) and HOP THERE AND BACK AGAIN and UP SIDES DOWN MIDDLE and NELSON and HIDING HATS IN THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT and POLLY TELL ME THE TIME (duty) and BUCK, BUCK, HOW MANY FINGERS HAVE I GOT UP and SOLOMON SILENT READING. SOLOMON SILENT READING--queer name, isn’t it? This is how the game goes:

“First of all a boy bends down and each boy flies over and the Duty man being last shouts out a game while flying over such as Solomon silent reading. A boy must bend down, then the Duty man thinks of a word and writes it on the boy’s back with his finger, then the one who is bending down gets up and tells the Duty man what he wrote, then all the other boys stoop down one at a time and the Duty man repeats the writing [on their backs] and the last one to get it wrong has to give down”--

and BULL-DOG RACE and EATING FISH AND POTATOES and UPSETTING MOTHER’S GRAVY and HANDS OFF and CAP TELLING and WHO WILL TAKE THE PIG (or the UGLY BEAR) TO MARKET and ARM’S LENGTH and LAUGH AND CRY and BRASS BAND and CANNON BALLS and FOOT IT and DEAF AND DUMB MOSES (also called DUTY FOUR, where you have to pretend to be deaf and dumb) and FIRE ENGINES (or FIREMAN: duty) and STICK IN THE MUD (or STICKUMS) and BRITISH WORKMAN and SUGAR CANES and CARRYING CROCODILES’ FOOD. You play CROCODILES’ FOOD like this:

“All the boys leap over one’s back and then run to end of street and then you all come back with your hands and feet on the ground and your chest above the ground and then you place your hat on your chest and walk along and the boy who falls over has to go down”

in other words, the cap (the crocodiles’ food) has to lie on your stomach, which is sometimes called chest, while you move forwards with your back to the earth supporting yourself on hands and feet, as you can see perfectly well from this other description:

“Have to run to top of street then the boy who is down shouts out carrying crocodiles food, then the other boys have to come back with their hats on their chests and their hands behind and running along on their backs”

and GAMMON RASHER and CATCHING STONES and RACE FOR A LEAF and CARRIAGES and ALL SORTS and PULLING UP FATHER’S RHUBARB and HAYSTACK and KING’S DINNER and MOUSE IN THE TRAP and PUNCTURED TYRE and COBBLER and DRUMS and FOOT AND LEE and FINGER IN THE BIRD’S NEST and BABBLE and OVER GARDEN WALL and THREE AND ON and HOW FAR CAN YOU RUN and BUNG THE BARREL and PICKING THE BLOATER and SIFT THE GRAPES and HOT ROLLS and WARNIE I’M A COMING--and that’s just a few of them.

WARNIE has to be played against a wall, and this is what they say to it:

Hi Jimmy Nacko, one, two, three--Obobé, Obobé-all-y-over!

Warnie, I suppose, means “I warn ye”, because they say it just before they jump. But I can’t even make a guess at Obobé--wish I could. It’s quite possible that it never meant anything at all, to begin with. The boys sometimes call it High Bobbery--it’s a way they have, of working the old names round into a sort of sense, when they’ve forgotten their real meaning. I must write and ask Aunt Eliza; she knows everything (thinks she does). As to Jimmy Nacko--they sometimes call it Jimmy Wagtail, but one of the lads tells me it means “Neck, ho!” which only shows how they like twisting the names about. (That’s why they now say shuttlecock instead of shuttlecork, because they forget it’s played with a cork). What I think about Jimmy Nacko is this: judging by his name, he was just an old shonk[E] of some kind....

And now I must tell you about RELEASE. There is one game of this kind played by small children, and not worth talking about. But the real RELEASE (or ROBBERS AND COPPERS) is quite another thing altogether. In release you take sides and catch prisoners; you have to touch their heads and “crown” them; that’s what makes them prisoners. And that’s what makes them so wild--because the other chaps can’t always release them; and that’s why the old people bar the game--because you always get your clothes torn; and that’s why it’s also called BEDLAM--because there are so many rows while it’s going on. You see, they don’t like being made prisoners and being “crowned” and having their heads touched--not at all, at all. Just mad, it makes them.

“D’ye want a claht over the jor?” says one. “’Cos yer never did touch me ’ead, so there.”

“Ole Ikey see’d me doos it.”

“Liar. ’Cos ’e wos t’ovver side o’ the street.”

“’E never. Yer wos on the grahnd when I crahned yer napper.”

“Liar. Yer sez I wos a-layin dahn when all the time I wos on me stumps. Yer finks I’m up the pole to ’ear yer tork. Knock ’arf yer fice orff.”

“Not ’arf. Yer knows I touched yer nut ’cos don’t yer remember me a-standin on yer arms?”

“Ef yer want an eye bunged up or a punch on the snaht--”

“Well ef I’m a liar yore the biggest. So yer lumps it. I’m goin to be blowed ef I play wiv a lahsy blisterin blitherin blinkin blightin bloomin bleedin blasted baastard wots got a movver wots got a bloke wots--”

“’Ere, d’ye want a clip on the Kiber-pass?”

“Garn! P.........,[F] an play wiv the steam.”

FOOTNOTES:

[D] Moggies are cats.

[E] A shonk is a foreigner, generally a Jew.

[F] Four words censored.

Girls’ games? Bless you, dozens of them.

They play sports together with the boys: ball-games like ROUNDERS (“FOUR CORNERS”) and HEAD GAME and DAGGLES and BROKEN BOTTLE (yes; BROKEN BOTTLE is a ball-game, and is also called PASSING ROUND) and THREE CATCHES OUT and ROTTEN EGG (or CRACKED EGG) and A AND B, where they have to stand in four rings marked in chalk on the pavement; and some without balls such as FOOL, FOOL, COME TO SCHOOL (rather like DUNCE, DUNCE, DOUBLE D.) and WRINKLE-SHELLS and HARK THE ROBBERS COMING THROUGH--an old catch game--and STEPS, and SLY FOX, and LET GO MUST GO (a wall game) and HONEY-POTS.

HONEY-POTS is very respectable, but a little old-fashioned. Aunt Eliza says she used to play it, and I can quite believe that. I can just see her playing HONEY-POTS.

PLEASE WE’VE COME TO LEARN A TRADE (also called GUESSING WORDS or DUMB MOTIONS)--another game for boys and girls. There are two parties, one on each side of the street. One of them has to think of a trade, such as picking hops, for instance; then they take the first letters, P and H, and go over to the others and say “We have come to work a trade.” When the others ask, “What’s your trade?” they must answer “P. H.”, and pretend to be picking hops with their hands. If the others guess what trade they mean, they must shout it out and chase them across the street; and if they catch one of them--why, then they, the hop-pickers, must do the guessing instead. CATCH-IN-THE-ROPE is also for boys and girls, and so is PUSSY CAT, and so is STATUES. There are UGLY STATUES and PRETTY STATUES. When you play this game you have to line yourselves up against a wall or a house; then the judge comes along and pulls one of you forwards and in that moment you have to make a posture and a face, sometimes pretty but mostly ugly, and pretend to be a statue. It spoils everything if you laugh over this game, as you may understand from this description:--

“A lot of players stand on a form. One person in front tells the person to form a statue if she move or laugh she is hee--”

Another of them is HERE WE GO UP THE MULBERRY TREE, where they form two parties who challenge each other and try to pull each other across the street. And they have handkerchief games together such as I SENT A LETTER TO MY LOVE (“and on the way I dropped it”, a decent game for boys and girls, also called LOST LETTER; and if you haven’t got a handkerchief, which you generally haven’t, you can take any old rag); and NICK NACK TOLLY WHACK, which is rather rough and goes like this:--

“Pick up for sides and one side says nick nack tolly wack. Then if the other side does not move they rush and each one has to have a wack with the tolly wack (a handkerchief with a knot in it).”

There are several more of these games for boys and girls--such as LOOKING GLASS and GOOSE-GANDER and SNOW-WHITE (where they go on hands and knees and get very dirty) and PET POST--but not as many as there might be, because they don’t play together as much as they might....

Then the girls have games to themselves: ball-games like MACKINTOSH, and BASKET-BALL, and CROSS-BALL, and EMPEROR BALL, and CENTRE BALL, and CORNER CATCH BALL, and CIRCLE STRIDE BALL, and HAND BALL, and ONE IN THE MIDDLE, and QUEEN MAB (a ball-hiding game, also called QUEEN ANNE); and hand-clapping games such as ONE-TWO-THREE and ORANGES, ORANGES, FOUR A PENNY, and TWISTERS AND CLAPS; and ring games like UP TO THE RING, and RUNNING IN AND OUT THE BLUEBELLS, and FIRE, and WALKING ROUND THE VILLAGE, and THIEF, PRINCE, KING, QUEEN, BEGGAR, and THROWING THE BEAN-BAGS, and PRETTY AND UGLY--where one girl stands in the centre of the ring and picks out another one who has to make a face, and if she’s satisfied with the face, she allows her to stand in the centre instead.

Other girls’ games are MOTHER I’M OVER THE WATER and BOX NUTS and VICTORIA and TURNING MOTHER’S WRINGER and WE THREE KINGS and JOHN BROWN’S KNAPSACK and FILLING (or PUSHING THROUGH) THE GAP and WHEN I WAS A SCHOOLGIRL and BREAD AND BUTTER (shuttlecock game) and COME TO SEE POOR MARY and WE ARE ROMANS (two parties of girls) and WHAT IS IT and WHO KNOWS and HOW, WHEN AND WHERE and HEAD AND SHOULDERS and BEAST, BIRD, FISH, FLOWER and POLLY GOES TO BED and POOR POLLY CAN’T SEE and TAG and RAILWAY RACE and ON THE MOUNTAIN and HOOK AND EYE and EGG IN THE SPOON and HAWK AND DOVE and BORROW A LIGHT and PEASE CODS and GOLDEN GOOSE and TREACLE PUDDING and WHO’S AFRAID OF BLACK PETER and JENNY PLUCK PEARS and WALKING-STICKS and LOOKING FOR MOTHER’S THIMBLE and TIME and LADYSMITH and PUSHY BACK and PASS OVER and WE ARE BRITISH SOLDIERS and L. S. D. and the WHITE SHIRT. THE WHITE SHIRT is an old ghost game, played like this:

“You have a lot of girls standing against a wall, one of them being the mother of the others. She tells them to go and see if father’s shirt’s dry (the shirt being a girl in white, standing at a distance). They go in turn to see if it is dry & each time the “ghost” in father’s shirt catches one. At last the mother alone is left, she goes and is caught; then another “shirt” is picked, and so the game goes on.”

I don’t think Aunt Eliza ever played THE WHITE SHIRT; she wouldn’t care about the name--

and MERRY MONTH OF MAY and CON-STANT-I-NO-PLE and BLACK AND BLUE and FOLLOW YOUR MOTHER TO MARKET and PUSS and MY SISTER JANE and TWO LITTLE PEOPLE WENT OUT ONE DAY (“As they went out they were heard to say”) and OLD DEVIL IN FIRE (or LIGHT MOTHER’S COPPER FIRE), which is played so:

“About one dozen girls can play. They select one who has to be the devil, she’s to stand against a wall, with a girl hid behind her. All the children have to try and light the fire, and each time the girl behind pinches them and they say “Oh, mother, the devil’s in fire.” Then the mother tries to light the fire and the devil chases them, and the one who is caught has to become devil, next time.”

It’s perfectly certain Aunt Eliza never played OLD DEVIL.

And other girls’ games are JACOB AND RACHEL (where two of them have to chase each other blindfolded) and BUSHEL BASKET and MRS. BROWN and WOODEN LEG and ROLLING PIN (two parties of girls who decide which of them has to chase the other by the red or blue colour marked on a rolling pin which is rolled between them) and PORK AND GREENS--

“One player asks a question and the next says pork and greens. If she says anything else she is out--”

and TWO’S AND THREE’S--

“A double ring is formed. Then two children are out, they chase each other & one runs in front of a child then the back one is hee--”

and BUZZ--

“One player count one then the next says two and so on. Every 5 the player instead says buzz--”

and PARSON’S CAT--

“Children sit down in a ring and begin saying something about the cat such as Abomnerble Cat. Then B and so on.”

I SPY WITH ONE EYE and BLACK IN TOPPER and LOOKING THROUGH THE KEY-HOLE and PEEPING BEHIND THE CURTAIN are hiding games for girls. For SWINGS you need a lamp-post and a piece of rope; it’s not exactly a game, but you can spend a nice Sunday afternoon over it, if there are no coppernobs about. In POLLY TELL ME THE TIME they wind a skipping-rope round a girl’s waist a certain number of times, and then unwind her.

And that reminds me that some of the best girls’ games are with skipping ropes.

They have SWING-SWONG, and DOUBLE DUTCH, and AMERICAN JUMP, and HIGHER AND HIGHER, and RUN AND SKIP, and HOOP AND SKIP, and INNERS AND OUTERS, and TOUCH TAIL, and NEBUCHADNEZZAR, and HIGH WATER, and NEVER LEAVE THE ROPE EMPTY, and OVER THE MOON, and ONE-TWO, and TIPPERARY (new), and ONE AND OUT, and SNAKES, and BIG BEN STRIKES ONE, and WHAT O SHE BUMPS (a new one), and ALL IN THE ROPE, and FOLLOW THE LEADER (yes; a skipping game) and FULL-STOP, and COLOURS, and HAREM SKIRT, and NAUGHTY GIRL, and THROWING UP GIRLS, and CATCH IN THE LONG ROPE, and EIGHTS, and DIFFICULTY, and THREE BETWEEN, and THREE AND ALL ON and SITTING ON THE STAR, MARY and I AM A LITTLE SHADOW and ROCK THE CRADLE and GIRLS’ NAMES, and BOYS’ NAMES, and goodness only knows how many more....

Some of the hand-clapping and ring and skipping games--most of them, in fact, and other ones too, in which the boys used to join--have songs that go with them; BOYS’ NAMES, for instance, begins like this:

Black-currant--red-currant--raspberry tart: Tell me the name of your sweetheart,

and then they begin with A. B. C., and all through the alphabet, a skip with each letter; and when they have found the sweetheart’s name they have to discover when they are to be married, and how many rings, and how many brooches, and in what clothes, and in what carriage, and how many kisses, and in what house they will live, and how many children--all in the same alphabetical manner; so that, if this game were ever properly finished, it would take at least a month’s hard skipping. Others of them end either with the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.; or with penny, tuppence, threepence, etc.; or with the things in the cruet-stand (salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper); or with the days of the week, or the months of the year.

Here are a few of these chants:[G]--

I had a dolly dressed in green, I didn’t like her--I gave her to the Queen-- The Queen didn’t like her--she gave her to the cat-- The cat didn’t like her, because she wasn’t fat.

or

Sally go round the moon, Sally, Sally go round the sun. Sally go round the ominlebus On a Sunday afternoon.

or

Dancing Dolly had no sense, She bought a fiddle for eighteen pence-- And all the tune that she could play Was “Over the hills and far away.” (_Or_: “Sally get out of the donkey’s way.”) (_Or_: “Take my dolly and fire away.”)

or

Eaper Weaper, chimbley-sweeper, Had a wife but couldn’t keep her, Had anovver, didn’t love her, Up the chimbley he did shove her.

or

Do you like silver and gold? Do you like brass? Do you like looking through The looking-glass? Yes I like silver and gold, Yes I like brass, etc.

or (an old one)

As I was walking through the City, Half past eight o’clock at night, There I met a Spanish lady Washing out her clothes at night. First she rubbed them, then she scrubbed them, Then she hung them out to dry, Then she laid her hands upon them, Said: I wish my clothes were dry.

or

Policeman, policeman, don’t touch me, I have a wife and a family. How many children have you got? Five and twenty is my lot, Is my lot, is my lot, Five and twenty is my lot.

or

Pounds, shillings and pence, The monkey jumped over the fence. The fence gave way, and the man had to pay Pounds, shillings and pence.[H]

or

I went down the lane to buy a penny whistle, A copper come by and pinch my penny whistle. I ask him for it back, he said he hadn’t got it-- Hi, Hi, Curlywig, you’ve got it in your pocket.

or

I’ll tell Ma when I get home That the boys won’t leave me alone. They pull my hair and break my comb, I’ll tell Ma when I get home.

or (for a shuttlecock-game)

Sam, Sam, dirty old man, Washed his face in a frying pan, Combed his hair with the leg of a chair-- Sam, Sam, dirty old man.

or

Look upon the mantle-piece, There you’ll find a ball of grease, Shining like a threepenny-piece-- Out goes she!

or

Piggy on the railway, picking up the stones, Up came an engine and broke Piggy’s bones. Oh, said Piggy, that’s not fair-- Oh, said the driver, I don’t care.

or

I had a black man, he was double-jointed, I kissed him, and made him disappointed. All right, Hilda, I’ll tell your mother, Kissing the black man round the corner. How many kisses did he give you? One, two, three, etc.

or

Charlie, Arlie, stole some barley, Out of a baker’s shop. The baker came out and gave him a clout, And made poor Charlie hop, hop, hop.

or

Up the ladder, down the wall, Ha’penny loaf to feed us all, I’ll buy milk and you buy flour, There’ll be pepper in half an hour.

or

Lay the cloth, knife and fork, Bring me up a leg of pork. If it’s lean, bring it in, If it’s fat, take it back, Tell the old woman I don’t want that.

or (an old one)

Green gravel, green gravel, Your grass is so green, (or: Your voice is not heard) I’ll send you a letter To call (Florrie) in. I’ll wash you in milk, and dress you in silk, And write down your name with a gold pen and ink.

or

Two in the rope, and two take end, Both are sisters, both are friend, One named (Maudie), one named (Kate)-- Two in the rope and two take end.

or (evidently made up of different bits)

The woods are dark, the grass is green, All the girls I love to see Excepting (Rose Taylor), she’s so pretty, She belongs to London City.

or

Callings in and callings out-- I call (Rosie) in. Rosie’s in and won’t go out-- I call (Maudie) in.

or

All the boys in our town, eating apple-pie, Excepting (Georgie Groves), he wants a wife-- A wife he shall have, according he shall go Along with (Rosie Taylor), because he loves her so. He kisses her and cuddles her, and sits her on his knee, And says, my dear, do you love me? I love you, and you love me. Next Sunday morning, the wedding will be, Up goes the doctor, up goes the cat, Up goes a little boy in a white straw hat.

or

Vote, vote, vote for (Billy Martin), Chuck old (Ernie) at the door-- If it wasn’t for the law, I would punch him on the jaw, And we won’t want (Billy Martin) any more.

or

I know a washerwoman, she knows me, She invited me to tea, Guess what we had for supper-- Stinking fish and bread and butter.

or

Half a pint of porter, Penny on the can, Hop there and back again If you can.

or

Down in the valley where the green grass grows, Dear little (Lily) she grows like a rose. She grows, she grows, she grows so sweet-- Come little (Violet) and grow at her feet.

or

Sweete, sweet Carroline, Dipt her face in Terpentine, Terpentine, made it shine, Sweet, sweet Caroline.

or

Monday night, Band of Hope, Tuesday night, pull the rope, Wednesday night, Pimlico, And out comes (Ethel Rowe).

or

I had a bloke down hopping, I had a bloke down Kent. I had a bloke down Pimlico, And this what he sent: O Shillali-tee-i-o.

or

Mary had bread and jam, Marmalade and treacle, A bit for me and a bit for you, And a bit for all the people.

or

Mrs. Brown went to town, Riding on a pony, When she came back she took off her hat, And gave it Mrs. Maloney.

or

Light the fire, blacksmith, show a pretty light, In comes (Nellie), dressed in white, Pretty shoes and stockings, pretty curly hair, Pretty beads around her neck, but no chemise to wear.

or

One, two, three, four, five, I caught a fish alive. Why did you let him go? Because he hurt my finger so.

or

The black man said (or: My mother said) That you are A., If you do not want to play, You can sling your hook away.

or (skipping)