O. W. Then the blood will stream over the floor.
The mother at this loses patience, and pushes her way in, the witch
trying in vain to keep her out. She, with all her children, then chase
the witch until they catch her; when they pretend to bind her hand
and foot, put her on a pile, and burn her, the children fanning the
imaginary flames with their pinafores. Sometimes the dialogue after
"Here we are, mother," is omitted, and the witch is at once chased.
Mr. Halliwell Phillips calls this the "Game of the Gipsy," and gives
some rhymes to which it is played, but I have never heard them in
this county.
The next, a game quite unknown to me, I took down from the lips of
a little girl in West Cornwall, in 1882, who told me it was a great
favourite with her and her playmates.