NURSERY GAMES.
A GAME FOR A WET DAY.
"Cows and horses walk on four legs,
Little children walk on two legs;
Fishes swim in water clear,
Birds fly up into the air.
One, two, three, four, five,
Catching fishes all alive.
Why did you let them go?
Because they bit my finger so.
Which finger did they bite?
This little finger on the right."
The enthusiasm with which children of all ages play this somewhat noisy
game can hardly be imagined. Try it, you fun-loving parents, and be
rewarded by the tears of joy their mirth and laughter will cause.
It is played after this fashion. However, it will not be amiss to remove
the tea-things before anything is attempted. All seated, the parent or
nurse then places the first and second fingers of each hand on the
coverlet, the youngsters imitating her. Everybody's fingers are now
moved up and down in a perpendicular way, like the needle of a sewing
machine. All singing--
"Cows and horses walk on four legs."
The next line requires a change, only one finger on each hand being
used, and--
"Little children walk on two legs" (_sung_).
* * *
"Fishes swim in water clear"
demands the waving of arms horizontally, to imitate the action of
swimming in water.
"Birds fly up into the air."
When this line is sung the hands are held up, and moved from the wrists
like the wings of birds flapping in the air.
"One, two, three, four, five"
is said to the clapping of hands.
"Catching fishes all alive"
is sung to the action of grabbing at supposed fishes with the fingers.
"Why did you let them go?"
Everybody shakes their head and replies--
"Because they bit my finger so!"
"Which finger did they bite?"
Holding up the little finger, you answer--
"This little finger on the right!"
"ANOTHER NURSERY TABLE GAME, BUT NEARLY 300 YEARS OLD."
Some of the thousands of the nursery tales in vogue come to us without a
trace as to their origin. In James I.'s time the ending of ballads ran
with a tuneful
"Fa, la, la, la, lal, de."
A collection of ballads in book-form by John Hilton, and called
"Garlands," are also described as the "Ayres and Fa las" in the
title-page.
Halliwell gives "The tale of two birds sitting on a stone" the same
date. It is scarcely a tale, but a game still played by all classes of
children--
"There were two birds sitting on a stone,
Fa, la, la, la, lal, de.
One flew away, and then there was one,
Fa, la, la, la, lal, de.
The other flew after, and then there was none,
Fa, la, la, la, lal, de.
And so the poor stone was left all alone,
Fa, la, la, la, lal, de!"
The way boys play it may be briefly told as follows:--Pieces of paper
are wetted and fixed on the fingers, the first finger of each hand.
Being thus ornamented, they are placed on the table or knee, and the
rhyme repeated--
"There were two birds sitting on a stone."
Then by a sudden upward movement, throwing the paper on one finger, as
it were, over the shoulder, the next finger--the second--is substituted
for it, and the hand is again brought down and placed beside the
remaining paper bird--
"Fa, la, la, la, lal, de."
"One flew away, and then there was one."
The same sleight-of-hand is gone through with the other finger--
"The other flew away, and then there was none,
And so the poor stone was left all alone."
Another but more modern game, embodying the same idea, is told in--
"There were two blackbirds sitting on a hill,
One named Jack and the other named Jyll.
Fly away, Jack, fly away, Jyll.
Come again, Jack, come again, Jyll"--
to the wonderment of the child watching the quick change of fingers.
It is the earliest sleight-of-hand trick taught to the nursery child.
A B C GAME.
A spirited game may be played after this fashion. All seated round the
table or fireplace. One child sings a solo--a verse of some nursery
rhyme. For instance--
"Hi diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed to see such fine sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon."
A chorus of voices takes up the tune and the solo is repeated, after
which the alphabet is sung through, and the last letter, Z, sustained
and repeated again and again, to bother the next child whose turn it now
is to sing the next solo. The new solo must be a nursery rhyme not
hitherto sung by any of the company. If unable to supply a fresh rhyme
the child stands out of the game and pays forfeit.
"I APPRENTICE MY SON."
In another parlour game of a rather interesting kind the youngest in the
room begins by saying--
"I apprentice my son to a butcher; the first thing he sold was a
pound of M."
Each has a turn to guess what M may stand for--some kind of meat the
butcher usually sells. Should the first person in the circle guess the
correct meaning, it becomes his or her turn to ask the next question.
Baker or grocer, chemist or draper, in fact any trade may be selected by
the person whose turn it is to put the question.
AN ARMENIAN CHILD'S GAME
of a thousand years ago is still played by the Christian children of
Asia. Like our Western street games of tops and tip-cats it perpetuates
the cruelties of the persecutions which their ancestors suffered, a most
terrible instance of the child's game outliving the serious performance
of that which it represented. The frontier of the Armenian kingdom had
been destroyed by one of the Christian Byzantine emperors, thus enabling
the Seljouck Turks to pass through the Armenian kingdom, and deal out to
the unoffending Asiatic Christians the terrors of pillage by firing
their peaceful homesteads. England, France, and Germany have a
modification of the game. In France the youngsters hand round a burning
faggot, exclaiming--
"Petit bonhomme vit encore."
German children play a similar game with a stick instead of a firebrand,
and Halliwell gives the rhyme describing the English game as--
"Jack's alive and in very good health,
If he die in your hand you must look to yourself."
RUSSIAN SUPERSTITION.
An old custom of the Russian maiden--identical with the English girl's
habit on St. Valentine's Day--is still in vogue. Going into the street
she asks the first man she meets his Christian name, believing that her
future husband will be sure to bear the same.