to the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford, where it now lies. Professor Haddon
has made a collection of these toys, and has written on their connection
with the Australian boomerang.
They are still occasionally to be met with in country districts, but are
used simply for the purpose of making a noise.
See "Bummers."
Tick
A game mentioned by Drayton, and still played in
Warwickshire.--Halliwell's _Dictionary_. The same game as "Touch."
Tickle me Quickly
An old game (undescribed) mentioned in Taylor's _Motto_, 1622, sig. D,
iv.
Ticky Touchwood.
Ticky, ticky Touchwood, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen;
Sometimes nine and sometimes ten,
Ticky, ticky Touchwood, my black hen.
--Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_, under "Tiggy Touchwood") says, "One player
who is called Tiggy stands out, and each of the others takes hold of or
touches a piece of wood, such as a door, or rail, &c. One then leaves
his 'wood' and runs across the playground, and if whilst doing so Tiggy
can touch him he must stand out or take Tiggy's place."
One child is chosen to be "Ticky," _i.e._, to be on the _qui vive_ to
lay hold of or touch any one who is not touching wood. If played out of
doors it must be clearly defined _what is wood_, trees and all growing
wood being forbidden. The fun consists in the bold ventures of those who
tempt "Ticky" to run after them, and contrive to touch "wood" just
before he touches them. When one is caught he is "Ticky" in
turn.--Swaffham, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
Played within a given boundary, in which were wooden buildings or
fences. When one of the players was being pursued by the tigger, if he
touched wood he could not be made prisoner, but he was not allowed to
remain long in that position, and directly his hand left wood he was
liable to instant capture. If when pursued he called out "a barla!" he
was again exempt from capture, but he could not move from the position
or place where he or she was when they called out, a barla! When wishing
to move he had to call out "Ma barla oot!" No den in this game, but
constant running.--Biggar (Wm. Ballantyne).
Lowsley (_Berkshire Glossary_) says, "Boys have games called Touch-wood
and Touch-iron, where any one not touching either of the substances
named is liable to be caught by the one standing out."
Ross and Stead (_Holderness Glossary_) give this game as Tiggy
Touchwood, a game similar to Tig, but in which the player must touch
wood. It is called Ticky, Ticky Touchwood by Brogden (_Lincolnshire
Provincial Words_), and Tiggy in Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_.
Also played in another way. One tree or piece of wood was selected for
"Home," and the players darted out from this saying, "Ticky, Ticky
Touchwood," then running back to the tree and touching it before Ticky
caught them. "Parley" or "fainits" were the words called out when
exempt.--London (A. B. Gomme).
It is also described in Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.
Tig.
A game in which one player touches another, then runs off to be pursued
and touched in turn.
Mr. Addy says, "Children _tig_ each other when they leave school, and
there is a rivalry among them to get the last tig. After a boy has said
_tig-poison_, he is not to be 'tigged' again." Brockett says: "Tig, a
slight touch (as a mode of salutation), a play among children on
separating for the night, in which every one endeavours to get the last
touch; called also Last Bat."--Brockett's _North Country Words_, and
consult Dickinson (_Cumberland Glossary_), also Jamieson. A boys' game,
in which the player scores by touching one who runs before him.--Stead's
_Holderness Glossary_. A play among children when separating for the
night.--Willan's _Dialect Words of West Riding of Yorks._ Called also
"Touch" and "Tigga Tiggy," in East and West Cornwall; (Courtney and
Couch), also Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.
See "Canlie," "Cross Tig."
Time.
The players stand in a line. Two are chosen, who stand apart, and fix on
any hour, as one, two, three, &c., or any half-hour. A nestie is marked
off at some distance from the row of players. One of the two goes in
front of the line of players, and beginning at one end asks each the
hour. This is done till the hour fixed on between the two is guessed.
The one that makes the right guess runs to catch the other of the two
that fixed the hour, and she makes off to the "nestie." If she is caught
she goes to the line of players, and the one that caught her takes her
place. If she reaches the "nestie" without being caught, she has still
to run to the line of players; if she does this without being caught
she holds her place as one of the time-fixers, but if caught she
takes her stand in the line, and the one that caught her becomes
time-fixer.--Fraserburgh (Rev. W. Gregor).
Tip it.
This is played by six players, divided into two sides of three each,
with one captain to each side. A ring or other small object is taken by
the side which wins the toss, and then both sides sit down to a small
table. The in-side puts their hands under the table, and the ring is
given to one of the three players. At a given signal they all bring up
their closed hands on to the table, and the other side has to guess in
which closed fist the ring is. The guesser has the privilege of ordering
"off" the hands which he thinks are empty. If he succeeds in getting the
empty hands off, he says "tip it" to the remaining one. If he guesses
right the ring changes sides. The game is to keep the ring or other
object on one side as long as possible.--London (Alfred Nutt).
Tip-Cat.
Strutt says this is so denominated from the piece of wood called a cat,
about six inches in length, and an inch and a half or two inches in
diameter, diminished from the middle to both ends. When the cat is on
the ground the player strikes it smartly, when it rises with a rotatory
motion high enough for him to hit it again before it falls, in the same
manner as a ball. He says there are various methods of playing the game,
and describes the two following: A large ring is made in the ground; in
the middle of this the striker takes his station; his business then is
to hit the cat over the ring. If he fails in doing so he is out, and
another player takes his place; if successful, he judges with his eye
the distance the cat is driven from the centre of the ring, and calls
for a number at pleasure to be scored towards his game: if the number
demanded be found upon measurement to exceed the same number of lengths
of the bludgeon, he is out; on the contrary, if it does not, he obtains
his call. The second way of playing is to make four, six, or eight
holes in the ground in a circular direction, and at equal distances from
each other, at every hole is placed a player with his bludgeon: one of
the opposite party who stand in the field tosses the cat to the batsman
who is nearest him, and every time the cat is struck the players are
obliged to change their situations, and run once from one hole to
another in succession; if the cat be driven to any great distance they
continue to run in the same order, and claim a score towards their game
every time they quit one hole and run to another; but if the cat be
stopped by their opponents and thrown across between any two of the
holes before the player who has quitted one of them can reach the other,
he is out.
Mr. Kinahan says there is among old Irish games one sometimes called
cat, played with three or more players on each side, two stones or holes
as stations, and a lobber, but the regular cat is played with a stick
four inches long, bevelled at each end, called the cat. This bevelled
stick is laid on the ground, and one end hit with a stick to make it
rise in the air, when it is hit by the player, who runs to a mark and
back to his station. The game is made by a number of runs; while the
hitter is out if he fails three times to hit the cat, or if he is hit by
the cat while running.--(_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 264.) The common game
of "tip-cat" was called _cat-and-kitten_ by Dorset children. The long
stick represented the "cat" and the small pieces the
"kitten."--(_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 234.) Elworthy (_West Somerset
Words_) calls it Stick and Snell. Brogden (_Provincial Words,
Lincolnshire_) gives it as tip-cat, as does Lowsley (_Berkshire
Glossary_), also Trippit and Coit, and Trippit and Rack in some parts of
the North.--Brockett's _North Country Words_. Once commonly played in
London streets, now forbidden.
See "Cudgel," "Waggles."
Tip-tap-toe.
A square is drawn having nine smaller squares or houses within it. Two
persons play. They alternately make the one a square and the other a
cross in any one of the houses. He that first gets three in a line wins
the game.--Peacock's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_. Brogden
(_Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_) calls it Tit-tat-toe, also Lowsley
(_Berkshire Glossary_).
Northall says called Tick-tack-toe in Warwickshire and Staffordshire;
the rhyme is "Tick-tack-toe, I've caught you."
This game is called "Noughts and Crosses," in London, probably from
those marks being used in the game.
See "Kit-Cat-Cannio," "Noughts and Crosses."
Tiring Irons.
An old game with iron rods and rings.--Holland's _Cheshire Glossary_.
Tisty Tosty
See "Shuttlefeather," "Teesty Tosty."
Titter-totter
The game of see-saw.--Halliwell's _Dictionary_.
Tit-tat-toe.
A game played by school children on slates. A round is drawn, which is
divided into as many divisions as is thought necessary, sixteen being
generally the least. These divisions are each numbered, the centre
containing a higher figure than any in the divisions, usually 25, 50, or
100. Several children can play. They each have a place or square
allotted to them on the slate in which to record the numbers they
obtain. A space is allotted to "Old Nick" or the "Old Man." The players
alternately take a pencil in their right hand (holding it point
downwards on 1, and tapping on each number with it), and shutting their
eyes move round and round the diagram saying--
"Tit, tat, toe, my first go,
Three jolly butcher boys all in a row
Stick one up, stick one down,
Stick one in the old man's ground."
stopping and keeping the pencil in an upright position when the last
word is said. The player then opens his eyes, and registers in his
square the number at which the pencil stopped. This number is then
scratched through on the diagram, to signify that it is taken, the other
players proceed in the same manner as the first; then the first one
begins again. This is continued till all the numbers are scratched out,
or till one of the players puts his pencil into the centre, and thus
wins the game. If all the figures are taken before the centre is
touched, the game goes to the "Old man" or "Old Nick." Also, if one
player puts his pencil in a division already taken, he records nothing
and loses that turn; this is also the case if, after the verse is
repeated, the pencil is found to be on a division or boundary line or
outside the round.--London (A. B. Gomme).
[Illustration]
I was taught by a maid servant to play this game on the ground. This
girl drew the round and divisions and figures on the gravel path or
mould in the garden, and sharpened a piece of stick at one end for the
pointer. She did not know the game as one played on slates, but always
played it on the ground in this way.
This game appears to indicate a lottery, and might originally have had
something to do with allotting pieces of land or other property to
prospective owners under the ancient common field system. The places
when taken by one player not being available for another, and the fact
of it being known as played on the ground, and not on slates, are both
significant indications of the suggested origin. The method of allotting
lands by lottery is described in Gomme's _Village Community_. Mr.
Newell, _Games_, p. 140, records a similar game called "Wheel of
Fortune."
Tods and Lambs
A game played on a perforated board with wooden pins.--Jamieson. The
Editor adds that the game is materially the same as the English "Fox and
Geese."
See "Fox and Geese" (2).
Tom Tiddler's Ground
[Music]
--Liverpool (Mrs. Harley).
A line is drawn on the ground, one player stands behind it. The piece so
protected is "Tom Tiddler's ground." The other players stand in a row on
the other side. The row breaks and the children run over, calling out,
"Here we are on Tom Tiddler's ground, picking up gold and silver." Tom
Tiddler catches them, and as they are caught they stand on one side. The
last out becomes Tom Tiddler.--Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).
Tom Tiddler's Ground is played at Chirbury under the name of "Boney" =
Bonaparte! one boy taking possession of a certain area, and the others
trespassing on it, saying, "I am on Boney's ground." If they are caught
there, they are put "in prison" till released by a touch from a
comrade.--Chirbury (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 523-524).
I'm on Tom Tinker's ground,
I'm on Tom Tinker's ground,
I'm on Tom Tinker's ground,
Picking up gold and silver.
--Derbyshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, i. 386).
Northall (_Folk Rhymes_) gives the following lines, and describes it as
played as above, except that Tom Tinder is provided with a knotted
handkerchief, with which he buffets any one caught on his property:--
Here we are on Tom Tinder's ground,
Picking up gold and silver;
You pick weeds, and I'll pick seeds,
And we'll all pick carraway comfits.
In the Liverpool district the game is called "Old Daddy Bunchey" (Mrs.
Harley), and in Norfolk "Pussey's Ground" (Miss Matthews).
It is also mentioned by Lowsley (_Berkshire Glossary_).
Tops
The special games now played with tops are mentioned under their
respective titles, but the general allusions to the ancient
whipping-tops are important enough to note.
Strutt says the top was known with us as early at least as the
fourteenth century, when its form was the same as now, and the manner of
using it can admit of but little if any difference. Representations of
boys whipping tops occur in the marginal paintings of the MSS. written
at this period; and in a work of the thirteenth century, "Le Miracle de
Saint Loys," the whipping top (Sabot) is mentioned. The top was probably
in use as a toy long before. Strutt records the following anecdote of
Prince Henry, son of James I., which he met with in a MS. at the Museum,
the author of which speaks of it as perfectly genuine. His words
are--"The first tyme that he, the prince, went to the towne of Sterling
to meete the king, seeing a little without the gate of the towne a stack
of corne in proportion not unlike to a topp wherewith he used to play;
he said to some that were with him, 'Loe there is a goodly topp;'
whereupon one of them saying, 'Why doe you not play with it, then?' he
answered, 'Set you it up for me, and I will play with it.'"--_Sports_,
p. 385.
Northbroke, in his Treatise against Dicing, 1579, p. 86, says: "Cato
giveth counsell to all youth, saying, '_Trocho_ lude, aleas fuge, _playe
with the toppe_, and flee dice-playing.'"
In the English translation of Levinus Lemnius, 1658, p. 369: "Young
youth do merrily exercise themselves in whipping-top, and to make it
run swiftly about, that it cannot be seen, and will deceive the sight."
Cornelius Scriblerus, in his Instructions concerning the Plays and
Playthings to be used by his son Martin, says: "I would not have Martin
as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus
which was recommended by Cato be really our present top, or rather the
hoop which the boys drive with a stick."--_Pope's Works_, vi. 115.
Among well-known classical allusions may be noted the following mention
of whipping the top, in Persius's third Satire:
"Neu quis callidior buxum torquere flagello."
Thus translated by Dryden:
"The whirling top they whip,
And drive her giddy till she fall asleep."
Thus also in Virgil's _Æneid_, vii. 378:
"Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere turbo,
Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circum
Intenti ludo exercent. Ille actus habenâ
Curvatis fertur spatiis: stupet inscia supra,
Impubesque manus, mirata volubile buxum:
Dant animos plagæ."
Thus translated by Dryden:
"As young striplings whip the top for sport,
On the smooth pavement of an empty court;
The wooden engine whirls and flies about,
Admired with clamours of the beardless rout,
They lash aloud, each other they provoke,
And lend their little souls at ev'ry stroke."
And so Ovid, Trist. 1. iii. Eleg. 12:
"Otia nunc istic: junctisque ex ordine ludis
Cedunt verbosi garrula bella fori.
Usus equi nunc est, levibus nunc luditur armis:
Nunc pila, _nunc celeri volvitur orbe trochus_."
Passing from these general allusions to the top as a form of amusement,
we enter on more significant ground when we take into consideration the
various passages in the early dramatists and other writers (collected
together in Nares' _Glossary_), which show that tops were at one time
owned by the parish or village.
"He's a coward and a coystril that will not drink to my niece, till his
brains turn like a parish-top."--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, i. 3.
"A merry Greek, and cants in Latin comely,
Spins like the parish-top."
--Ben Jonson, _New Inn_, ii. 5.
"I'll hazard
My life upon it, that a boy of twelve
Should scourge him hither like a parish-top,
And make him dance before you."
--Beaumont and Fletcher, _Thierry and Theod._, ii. 1.
"And dances like a town top, and reels and hobbles."
--Ibid., _Night Walker_, i. 1.
Every night I dream I am a town-top, and that I am whipt up and down
with the scourge stick of love.--"Grim, the Collier of Croydon," ap.
_Dodsley_, xi. 206.
In the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 143, we read: "Another tells 'em
of a project he has to make town tops spin without an eel-skin, as if he
bore malice to the school-boys."
Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1677, tells us, in the Fanatick's
Chronology, it was then "1804 years since the first invention of
town-tops."
These passages seem to refer to a custom of keeping tops by a township
or parish, and they are confirmed by Evelyn, who, speaking of the uses
of willow wood, among other things made of it, mentions great
"town-topps" (_Sylva_, xx. 29). The latest writers who give positive
information on the subject are Blackstone, who, in his note on
Shakespeare, asserts that to "sleep like a town top" was proverbial, and
Hazlitt, who, in his collection of _English Proverbs_, has "like a
parish-top." (See also Brand, ii. 448.)
Steevens, in his notes on Shakespeare, makes the positive assertion that
"this is one of the customs now laid aside: a large top was formerly
kept in every village, to be whipt in frosty weather, that the peasants
might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could
not work."
This passage is repeated in Ellis's edition of Brand, so that there is
only one authority for the two statements. The question is whether
Steevens was stating his own independent knowledge, or whether he based
his information upon the passage in Shakespeare which he was
illustrating. I think there can be no doubt that the custom existed, in
whatever way we accept Steevens' statement, and the question is one of
considerable interest.
"Tops" is one of those games which are strictly limited to particular
seasons of the year, and any infringement of those seasons is strictly
tabooed by the boys. Hone (_Every Day Book_, i. 127), records the
following rhyme:--
Tops are in, spin 'em agin;
Tops are out, smuggin' about,
but does not mention the season. It is, however, the early spring. This
rhyme is still in use, and may occasionally be heard in the streets of
London in the top season. Smugging is legitimate stealing when boys play
out of season. "Marbles furst, then comes tops, then comes kites and
hoops," said a London boy who had acquired some tops by "smuggin;" but
these rules are fast becoming obsolete, as is also the use of a dried
eel skin as the favourite whip or thong used.
The keeping of a top by the parish in its corporate capacity is not
likely to have arisen for the sake of supplying people with amusement,
and we must look to a far more ancient origin for this singular custom.
Hone mentions a doubtful story of a top being used in the ritual of one
of the churches at Paris. (The burial of Alleluia. The top was whipped
by a choir-boy from one end of the choir to the other: _Every Day Book_,
i. 100), and if this can be confirmed it would be a link in the chain of
evidence. But the whole subject requires much more evidence than it is
now possible to go into here, though even, as far as we can now go, I am
tempted to suggest that this well-known toy takes us back to the
serious rites of ancient religions.
Brady's _Clavis Calendaria_, i. 209, mentions the discontinued custom of
whipping tops on Shrove Tuesday as originating in the Popish Carnival as
types of the rigour of Church discipline.
It is not improbable that the tee-totum is the earliest form of top, and
as its use is for gambling, it is probable that this and the top were
formerly used for purposes of divination.
See "Gully," "Hoatie," "Hoges," "Peg Top," "Peg in the Ring,"
"Scurran-Meggy," "Totum."
The Totum, or Tee-to-tum
The Totum is really only a top to spin by hand. It is made of a square
piece of wood or bone, the four sides being each marked with a letter,
and the peg is put through a hole in the centre. Sometimes the totum is
shaped to a point on the under side, and a pin fixed in the upper part,
by which it is twirled round.
The game played is one of chance; it may be played by two or more,
either boys or girls, and is played only at Christmas. In Keith the
letters are A, N, D, T. In playing the stake is one pin, and each plays
in turn. If the side with A on it falls uppermost the player wins the
whole stake--"A, tack a'." If N turns up the player gets nothing--"N,
nikil (nihil), nothing." If T turns up one pin falls to the player--"T,
tack ane." If D comes uppermost the player has to lay down a pin--"D,
dossie doon." At times the game was played by paying a stake to all the
letters except A, and the words used were--"D, dip it," "T, tip it," and
"N, nip it."--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
We played the game when children usually at Christmas time. The players
sat round a table. A pool was made, each player putting in the same
amount of stakes, either pins, counters, nuts, or money. One player
collected the pool and then spun the tee-totum by his fingers. Whichever
letter was uppermost when it stopped, the player had to obey.
T, was take all (the contents of the pool).
H, half the contents.
N, nothing.
P, to put into the pool the same amount as the stakes were at first.
When this was done the next player spun the totum in his turn. When one
player got T a fresh pool had to be collected.--London (A. B. Gomme).
Jamieson's _Dictionary_ says children lay up stores of pins to play at
this game at Christmas time.
William Dunbar, the Scottish poet (James IV.), seems to refer to this
game in the poem, _Schir, [yogh]it remembir as of befoir_, in the
words--
"He playis with _totum_, and I with _nichell_" (l. 74).
Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, page 385) says the four sides were marked
with letters, and describes the game as we now play it in London.
All tee-totums or whirligigs seem to have some reference to tops, except
that the tee-totum is used principally for gambling.
Some have numbers on their sides like dice instead of letters, and some
are of octagonal shape.
See "Lang Larence," "Scop-peril," "Tops."
Touch
One player is chosen "he." He then runs amidst the other players and
tries to touch one, who then becomes "Tig" or "Touch" in turn.
See "Ticky Touchwood," "Tig."
Tower of London
The Tower is formed by a circle of children, two of whom constitute the
gate. These two join hands, and raise or lower their arm to open or shut
the gate. The Tower is summoned to open its gates to admit "King George
and all his merry men," how represented I can't remember; but I know
that at one point there is a chase, and the prisoner is caught and
brought before the king, when there ensues a scrap of dialogue in song
(Mrs. Harley).
See "How many miles to Babylon," "King of the Barbarie."
Town Lovers