The needle's eye
You can't pass by,
The thread it runs so true;
It has caught many a seemly lass,
And now it has caught you.
_Massachusetts._
In the following more complicated form of the game, in use half a
century ago, both a boy and a girl were caught by the players who
raised their arms:
The needle's eye
None can surpass
But those who travel through;
It hath caught many a smiling lass,
But now it hath caught you.
There's none so sweet
That is dressed so neat;[79]
I do intend,
Before I end,
To make this couple meet.
The pair then kissed, and the game proceeded as in "London Bridge,"
ending with a tug-of-war.
The name, "Threading the Needle," is still applied, in a district of
central France, to a dance in which many hundred persons take part, in
which from time to time the pair who form the head of the row raise
their arms to allow the line to pass through, coiling and winding like
a great serpent.