CAROL, p. 9. Middle Latin _Choraula_, from _choreola_. The word
_coraula_ is still used to denote the ring-dance in Switzerland; also
_coreihi_, to leap (choreare), Rochholz, p. 371. Russian _chorom_, a
round of children, Bezsonoff, p. 190.
MAY-GAMES, pp. 16-19. Tarbé, "Romancero de Champagne," ii. 61.
Puymaigre, p. 201, "Trimazos." A. Rivinus, "De Majumis," etc., in
Graevius, Syntagma (Utrecht, 1702).
GAMES CITED BY FROISSART (pp. 34, 35).--The passage here rendered
(with the omission of two or three obscure names of amusements) is
from "L'Espinette Amoureuse," l. 143-338, 35-47. Many of the games
mentioned cannot now be recognized from the titles given. Others,
however, can be identified; thus, _Queue loo loo_ (keuve leu leu) is
No. 106 of the present collection; _Oats_ (avainne), No. 21; _Scorn or
Derision_ (risées), perhaps No. 61; _King who does not lie_, perhaps
No. 55; _Grasses_ (erbelette), No. 42; _Cligne-musette_ (Cluignette),
No. 105; _Pince-merine_, according to Menagier de Paris, lxxvii., the
same as _Pince-sans-rire_, No. 77, C. _Playing with nuts_, No. 144;
_Throwing pence_, etc., No. 144, B. _Pebbles_ (pierettes), No. 137,
or No. 148. _Hook_ (havot), perhaps _Hockey_, No. 136. _Mule_, a kind
of leapfrog, still played in Italy, _Salta-muletta_, Gianandrea, No.
30. A species of this game in Philadelphia is now called _Saults_.
Replies (réponniaux), a sort of _Hide and seek_, No. 105, in which the
concealed person indicates his whereabouts in answer to a call; see
same poem, l. 2653. _Astonishment_ (esbahi), a game which consisted in
imitating that emotion; thus, when the horses of a party have given out
unexpectedly--"I should think we were playing at Astonishment," says
one of the cavaliers, looking at the faces of the rest (Dict. of La
Curne de Sainte-Palaye, art. "Esbahi"). On the whole, the impression
which the catalogue gives us, is that the sports of a child in the
Middle Ages were very similar to those of to-day, or, perhaps we should
rather say, of yesterday.
LOVE-GAMES (p. 39).--This is an old name for games representing or
offering opportunity for courtship, as "love-songs" is for ballads.
We have heard both expressions in New England, from the lips of
aged persons, in whose youth they were current. See the Gentleman's
Magazine, Feb. 1738.