[A] The French “Vingt-et-un.”
[B] The cut is the canal.
[C] One of _them_ tells me that OVERS KEEPS goes like this: “Make a
line, pitch up ha’pennies, if they go over, they are kept by the man
whose coin is nearest to the line under. He keeps all those what are
over, and spins up those what are under.”
Now I daresay you’ve heard of leap-frog, and maybe you think there’s
only one way of playing it. Well, if you want to see how our boys can
invent things out of their heads because, and only because, they have
no bats or other things to play with, you should come and watch them
at their leap-frog and duty games. (In leap-frog and overbacks they
go in certain fixed orders over each others’ backs; in duty one man
stays down until another fails in the duty and takes his place). Always
inventing new kinds, too. You could write a whole book about sports
of this kind, each with its separate rules and separate name--fancy
names they are, some of them--and each with its “showman” or “duty-man”
or “namer” who decides what things are to be done. There’s ALL THE
WINKLES, a grand game for as many as you like; and HOPPING TO LONDON
and ALL THE WAY TO LONDON and RACING TO LONDON and FOUR WAYS TO LONDON
and HOT PIES and COLD PIES and HERE COMES MY SHIP FULL SAIL and BUNNY
RABBIT (rather difficult) and HOP, STEP AND JUMP and HOPPING ROUND BIG
BEN and ALL HANDS ON DECK (also called FINGER ON THE BLOCK). CUT-A-LUMP
(or CUTTER)--that’s another kind. Bill bends down in the gutter, while
the others stand up behind him in a row; the first of them is called
cut-a-lump. He goes over Bill’s back, and where his feet touch the
ground--there he makes a mark; then the next boy, without moving from
his old place, has to jump over Bill and touch the same mark; then the
next, and the next--over they go! Of course, it becomes more difficult
with each jump, as the distance gets wider. Whoever first misses the
mark must take the place of Bill, who then becomes cutter in his turn.
That’s cut-a-lump: see?
Why it’s called cut-a-lump?
Because he cuts a lump off the distance in front of Bill.
Then there’s FROG IN FIELD and FROG IN THE MIDDLE and FROG IN THE WATER
and INCH IT UP and SHRIMPS (where you have to go over a boy’s back with
your cap doubled up on your head--many duty-games have to be played
with caps) and LOBSTER (also called EGGS AND BACON, where you have to
throw down your cap while going over his head and pick it up with your
teeth without rolling off his back) and EGG IN A DUCK’S BELLY (holding
the cap between your legs) and CAT O’ NINE TAILS and SPUR THE DONK and
OVER THE MOON and FOOT IT (where you jump sideways) and CHARGE OF THE
LIGHT BRIGADE and CAT ON HOT BRICKS (about as good as any) and POSTMAN
and HOPPING ALL THE WAY TO CHURCH and MUSSENTOUCHET--
“In mussentouchet one boy flies over back and then he puts the boys
hats anywhere he likes [on their bodies] and tells them to run to
certain spot and they must not touch their hats the one whose hat
falls off is down”--
and NEWSPAPERS (or PAPERS) and TWO FOOT FLY and STIFF-LEGGED COPPER
(also called POLICEMAN or STIFF BLOATERS or SHOWING NO IVORY, because,
after jumping over, you have to stand stock still and not show either
your teeth or your finger nails) and WHITEWASH and PLATES AND DISHES
and FLYING THE GARTER and WRITING LETTER TO PUNCH and SENDING LETTER
TO CANADA, which is played like this:
“When all the boys have gone over the boy who they call namer calls
out sending a letter to Canada. Then the boy who is down has to bend
down again then all the boys write the letter on his back then they
put it up his coat then stamp it then they hit him with their knees on
the....”
or perhaps you can understand it better from this:
“One boy bends down and then you pretend to write on his back then you
bang for the Stamp and then put it under his coat and push him first
leap over his back and say Sending a Letter to Canada.”
Perhaps you think these are all the duty-games they play, but there are
a good many more, such as FLIES ROUND THE JAM-POT and HOT COCKLES AND
HOT MUSTARD (rather like BUNNY RABBIT) and SHOOTING THE MOON (played
with caps and spittle) and YANK HIM OVER and UPSETTING THE APPLE-CART
and WEAK HORSES (played against a lamp-post where you pile yourselves
as high as possible) and STEPPING-STONES (difficult) and GLORY and
FISHING FOR OYSTERS and TICKLERS and COUNTRY (or NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND
WEST) and BUMPER (or BUMPUMS) and SMASHING YOUR GRANDMA’S WINDOWS and
BACKY-O and ROMAN CANDLES (or THUMBS UP: very difficult) and CHINESE
ORDERS and CHINESE YUM-YUM and KING JOHN SAYS SO and DEAD SOLDIERS and
SALMON FISHING and MISCHIEF and PULLING LEGS and FOLLOW MY LEADER
(yes; duty) and PIGGY BACKS and WHEELBARROWS and JOCKY WHACK and
SWIMMING IN BLUE WATER. SWIMMING IN BLUE WATER is played like this:
“One boy stoops down in bending attitude, and another boy lays on his
back crossways, and does the action of swimming, if the boy who is
swimming falls off he has to be down”--
and CARRYING THE OLD WOMAN’S WASHING and MESSENGERS (or MESSAGES) and
ELEPHANTS’ TRUNKS AND TAILS and SKINNING A RABBIT and MOGGIES[D] ON THE
WALL and SOPPY SOLDIER and TAILOR.
And if you’re not yet tired of duty-games, I will tell you one or two
more. There’s PICKING LEAVES and SCISSORS and THROUGH THE MOON and
PULLING BONES OUT OF FISHES and PORTER COLLECTING TICKETS (or TICKET
PUNCHING) and HOP THERE AND BACK AGAIN and UP SIDES DOWN MIDDLE and
NELSON and HIDING HATS IN THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT and POLLY TELL ME
THE TIME (duty) and BUCK, BUCK, HOW MANY FINGERS HAVE I GOT UP and
SOLOMON SILENT READING. SOLOMON SILENT READING--queer name, isn’t it?
This is how the game goes:
“First of all a boy bends down and each boy flies over and the Duty
man being last shouts out a game while flying over such as Solomon
silent reading. A boy must bend down, then the Duty man thinks of a
word and writes it on the boy’s back with his finger, then the one who
is bending down gets up and tells the Duty man what he wrote, then
all the other boys stoop down one at a time and the Duty man repeats
the writing [on their backs] and the last one to get it wrong has to
give down”--
and BULL-DOG RACE and EATING FISH AND POTATOES and UPSETTING MOTHER’S
GRAVY and HANDS OFF and CAP TELLING and WHO WILL TAKE THE PIG (or the
UGLY BEAR) TO MARKET and ARM’S LENGTH and LAUGH AND CRY and BRASS BAND
and CANNON BALLS and FOOT IT and DEAF AND DUMB MOSES (also called
DUTY FOUR, where you have to pretend to be deaf and dumb) and FIRE
ENGINES (or FIREMAN: duty) and STICK IN THE MUD (or STICKUMS) and
BRITISH WORKMAN and SUGAR CANES and CARRYING CROCODILES’ FOOD. You play
CROCODILES’ FOOD like this:
“All the boys leap over one’s back and then run to end of street and
then you all come back with your hands and feet on the ground and your
chest above the ground and then you place your hat on your chest and
walk along and the boy who falls over has to go down”
in other words, the cap (the crocodiles’ food) has to lie on your
stomach, which is sometimes called chest, while you move forwards with
your back to the earth supporting yourself on hands and feet, as you
can see perfectly well from this other description:
“Have to run to top of street then the boy who is down shouts out
carrying crocodiles food, then the other boys have to come back with
their hats on their chests and their hands behind and running along
on their backs”
and GAMMON RASHER and CATCHING STONES and RACE FOR A LEAF and CARRIAGES
and ALL SORTS and PULLING UP FATHER’S RHUBARB and HAYSTACK and KING’S
DINNER and MOUSE IN THE TRAP and PUNCTURED TYRE and COBBLER and DRUMS
and FOOT AND LEE and FINGER IN THE BIRD’S NEST and BABBLE and OVER
GARDEN WALL and THREE AND ON and HOW FAR CAN YOU RUN and BUNG THE
BARREL and PICKING THE BLOATER and SIFT THE GRAPES and HOT ROLLS and
WARNIE I’M A COMING--and that’s just a few of them.
WARNIE has to be played against a wall, and this is what they say to it:
Hi Jimmy Nacko, one, two, three--Obobé,
Obobé-all-y-over!
Warnie, I suppose, means “I warn ye”, because they say it just before
they jump. But I can’t even make a guess at Obobé--wish I could. It’s
quite possible that it never meant anything at all, to begin with. The
boys sometimes call it High Bobbery--it’s a way they have, of working
the old names round into a sort of sense, when they’ve forgotten their
real meaning. I must write and ask Aunt Eliza; she knows everything
(thinks she does). As to Jimmy Nacko--they sometimes call it Jimmy
Wagtail, but one of the lads tells me it means “Neck, ho!” which only
shows how they like twisting the names about. (That’s why they now say
shuttlecock instead of shuttlecork, because they forget it’s played
with a cork). What I think about Jimmy Nacko is this: judging by his
name, he was just an old shonk[E] of some kind....
And now I must tell you about RELEASE. There is one game of this kind
played by small children, and not worth talking about. But the real
RELEASE (or ROBBERS AND COPPERS) is quite another thing altogether. In
release you take sides and catch prisoners; you have to touch their
heads and “crown” them; that’s what makes them prisoners. And that’s
what makes them so wild--because the other chaps can’t always release
them; and that’s why the old people bar the game--because you always
get your clothes torn; and that’s why it’s also called BEDLAM--because
there are so many rows while it’s going on. You see, they don’t like
being made prisoners and being “crowned” and having their heads
touched--not at all, at all. Just mad, it makes them.
“D’ye want a claht over the jor?” says one. “’Cos yer never did touch
me ’ead, so there.”
“Ole Ikey see’d me doos it.”
“Liar. ’Cos ’e wos t’ovver side o’ the street.”
“’E never. Yer wos on the grahnd when I crahned yer napper.”
“Liar. Yer sez I wos a-layin dahn when all the time I wos on me stumps.
Yer finks I’m up the pole to ’ear yer tork. Knock ’arf yer fice orff.”
“Not ’arf. Yer knows I touched yer nut ’cos don’t yer remember me
a-standin on yer arms?”
“Ef yer want an eye bunged up or a punch on the snaht--”
“Well ef I’m a liar yore the biggest. So yer lumps it. I’m goin to be
blowed ef I play wiv a lahsy blisterin blitherin blinkin blightin
bloomin bleedin blasted baastard wots got a movver wots got a bloke
wots--”
“’Ere, d’ye want a clip on the Kiber-pass?”
“Garn! P.........,[F] an play wiv the steam.”