initial and final letters of a bird's, beast's, or fish's name, making
crosses (×) instead of the intermediate letters of the word, stating
whether the name is that of bird, beast, or fish. The other players must
guess in turn what the name is. The first one who succeeds takes for
himself the same number of marks as there are crosses in the word, and
then writes the name of anything he chooses in the same manner. If the
players are unsuccessful in guessing the name, the writer takes the
number to his own score and writes another. The game is won when one
player gains a certain number of marks previously decided upon as
"game."--Barnes (A. B. Gomme).
Bittle-battle
The Sussex game of "Stoolball." There is a tradition that this game was
originally played by the milkmaids with their milking-stools, which they
used for bats; but this word makes it more probable that the stool was
the wicket, and that it was defended with the bittle, which would be
called the bittle-bat.--Parish's _Sussex Dialect_.
See "Stoolball."
Bitty-base
Bishop Kennet (in _MS. Lansd._ 1033) gives this name as a term for
"Prisoner's Base."--Halliwell's _Dictionary_.
Black Man's Tig
A long rope is tied to a gate or pole, and one of the players holds the
end of the rope, and tries to catch another player. When he succeeds in
doing so the one captured joins him (by holding hands) and helps to
catch the other players. The game is finished when all are caught.--Cork
(Miss Keane).
Black Thorn
[Music]
--Earls Heaton, Yorks.
I. Blackthorn!
Butter-milk and barley-corn;
How many geese have you to-day?
As many as you can catch and carry away.
--Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).
II. Blackthorn! Blackthorn!
Blue milk and barley-corn;
How many geese have you to-day?
More than you can catch and carry away.
--Harland and Wilkinson's _Lancashire Folk-lore_, p. 150.
III. Blackthorn!
New milk and barley-corn;
How many sheep have you to sell?
More nor yo can catch and fly away wi'.
--Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_.
IV. Blackthorn!
Butter-milk and barley-corn;
How many sheep have you to-day?
As many as you catch and carry away.
--Earls Heaton, Yorkshire (Herbert Hardy).
(_b_) One set of children stand against a wall, another set stand
opposite, facing them. The first set sing the first line, the others
replying with the second line, and so with the third and fourth lines.
The two sides then rush over to each other, and the second set are
caught. The child who is caught last becomes one of the first set for
another game. This is the Earls Heaton version. The Lancashire game, as
described by Miss Dendy, is: One child stands opposite a row of
children, and the row run over to the opposite side, when the one child
tries to catch them. The prisoners made, join the one child, and assist
her in the process of catching the others. The rhyme is repeated in each
case until all are caught, the last one out becoming "Blackthorn" for a
new game. Harland and Wilkinson describe the game somewhat differently.
Each player has a mark, and after the dialogue the players run over to
each other's marks, and if any can be caught before getting home to the
opposite mark, he has to carry his captor to the mark, when he takes his
place as an additional catcher.
(_c_) Miss Burne's version (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 521) is
practically the same as the Earls Heaton game, and Easther in his
_Almondbury Glossary_ gives a version practically like the Sheffield.
Mr. Hardy says it is sometimes called "Black-butt," when the opposite
side cry "Away we cut." Miss Dendy quotes an old Lancashire rhyme, which
curiously refers to the different subjects in the Lancashire game rhyme.
It is as follows:--
Little boy, little boy, where were you born?
Way up in Lancashire, under a thorn,
Where they sup butter-milk in a ram's horn.
Another version is given in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vii. 285.
(_d_) This is a dramatic game, in which the children seem to personate
animals, and to depict events belonging to the history of the flock.
Miss Burne groups it under her "dramatic games."
Blind Bell
A game formerly common in Berwickshire, in which all the players were
hoodwinked except the person who was called the Bell. He carried a bell,
which he rung, still endeavouring to keep out of the way of his
hoodwinked partners in the game. When he was taken, the person who
seized him was released from the bandage, and got possession of the
bell, the bandage being transferred to him who was laid hold
of.--Jamieson.
(_b_) In "The Modern Playmate," edited by Rev. J. G. Wood, this game is
described under the name of "Jingling." Mr. Wood says there is a rougher
game played at country feasts and fairs in which a pig takes the place
of the boy with the bell, but he does not give the locality (p. 7).
Strutt also describes it (_Sports_, p. 317).
Blind Bucky-Davy
In Somersetshire the game of "Blind Man's Buff." Also in Cornwall (see
Couch's _Polperro_, p. 173). Pulman says this means "Blind buck and have
ye" (Elworthy's _Dialect_).
Blind Harie
A name for "Blind Man's Buff."--Jamieson.
Blind Hob
The Suffolk name for "Blind Man's Buff."--Halliwell's _Dictionary_;
Moor's _Suffolk Glossary_.
Blind Man's Buff
I. Come, shepherd, come, shepherd, and count your sheep.
I canna come now, for I'm fast asleep.
If you don't come now they'll all be gone.
What's in my way?
A bottle of hay.
Am I over it?
--Shrewsbury (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 525).
II. How many fingers do I hold up?
Four, three, &c. [at random in reply].
How many horses has your father?
Three [fixed reply].
What colour?
White, red, and grey.
Turn you about three times;
Catch whom you may!
--Deptford (Miss Chase).
III. How many horses has your father got in his stables?
Three.
What colour are they?
Red, white, and grey.
Then turn about, and twist about, and catch whom you may.
--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 57, 58).
IV. Antony Blindman kens ta me
Sen I bought butter and cheese o' thee?
I ga' tha my pot,
I ga' tha my pan,
I ga' tha a' I hed but a rap ho'penny I gave a poor oald man.
--Cumberland (Dickinson's _Glossary_).
(_b_) In the Deptford version one of the players is blindfolded. The one
who blindfolds ascertains that the player cannot see by putting the
first question. When the players are satisfied that the blindfolding is
complete, the dialogue follows, and the blind man is turned round three
times. The game is for him to catch one of the players, who is
blindfolded in turn if the blind man succeeds in guessing who he is.
Players are allowed to pull, pinch, and buffet the blind man.
[Illustration]
(_c_) This sport is found among the illuminations of an old missal
formerly in the possession of John Ives, cited by Strutt in his _Manners
and Customs_. The two illustrations are facsimiles from drawings in one
of the Bodleian MSS., and they indicate the complete covering of the
head, and also the fact that the game was played by adults. Gay says
concerning it--
As once I play'd at _blindman's-buff_, it hap't,
_About my eyes the towel thick was wrapt._
_I miss'd the swains, and seiz'd on Blouzelind._
And another reference is quoted by Brand (ii. 398)--
Sometyme the one would goe, sometyme the other,
Sometymes all thre at once, and sometyme neither;
Thus they with him play at boyes blynde-man-bluffe.
--_The Newe Metamorphosis_, 1600, MS.
Other names for this game are "Belly Mantie," "Billy Blind,"
"Blind Bucky Davy," "Blind Harie," "Blind Hob," "Blind Nerry Mopsey,"
"Blind Palmie," "Blind Sim," "Buck Hid," "Chacke Blynd Man,"
"Hoodle-cum-blind," "Hoodman Blind," "Hooper's Hide," "Jockie Blind
Man."
(_d_) There is some reason for believing that this game can be traced up
to very ancient rites connected with prehistoric worship. The name
"Billy Blind" denoted the person who was blindfolded in the game, as may
be seen by an old poem by Lyndsay, quoted by Jamieson:
War I ane King
I sould richt sone mak reformatioun
Farlyeand thairof your grace sould richt sone finde
That Preistis sall leid yow lyke are bellye blinde.
And also in Clerk's _Advice to Luvaris_:
Sum festnit is and ma not flé,
Sum led is lyk the belly blynd
With luve, war bettir lat it be.
[Illustration]
"It is probable," says Jamieson, "that the term is the same as Billy
Blynde, said to be the name of a familiar spirit or good genius somewhat
similar to the brownie." Professor Child identifies it with Odin, the
blind deity. Another name in Scotland is also "Blind Harie," which is
not the common Christian name "Harry," because this was not a name
familiar in Scotland. Blind Harie may therefore, Jamieson thinks, arise
from the rough or hairy attire worn by the principal actor. Auld Harie
is one of the names given to the devil, and also to the spirit Brownie,
who is represented as a hairy being. Under "Coolin," a curious Highland
custom is described by Jamieson, which is singularly like the game of
"Belly Blind," and assists in the conclusion that the game has
descended from a rite where animal gods were represented. Sporting with
animals before sacrificing them was a general feature at these rites. It
is known that the Church opposed the people imitating beasts, and in
this connection it is curious to note that in South Germany the game is
called _blind bock_, i. e., "blind goat," and in German _blinde kuhe_,
or "blind cow." In Scotland, one of the names for the game, according to
A. Scott's poems, was "Blind Buk":
Blind buk! but at the bound thou schutes,
And them forbeirs that the rebutes.
It may therefore be conjectured that the person who was hoodwinked
assumed the appearance of a goat, stag, or cow by putting on the skin of
one of those animals.
He who is twice crowned or touched on the head by the taker or him who
is hoodwinked, instead of once only, according to the law of the game,
is said to be _brunt_ (burned), and regains his liberty.--Jamieson.
Blind Man's Stan
A boys' game, played with the eggs of small birds. The eggs are placed
on the ground, and the player who is blindfolded takes a certain number
of steps in the direction of the eggs; he then slaps the ground with a
stick thrice in the hope of breaking the eggs; then the next player, and
so on.--Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.
Blind Nerry-Mopsey
The Whitby name for "Blind Man's Buff."--Robinson's _Glossary_.
Blind Palmie or Pawmie
One of the names given to the game of "Blindman's Buff."--Jamieson.
Blind Sim
Suffolk name for "Blind Man's Buff."--Forby's _Vocabulary of East
Anglia_.
Block, Haimmer (Hammer), and Nail
This is a boys' game, and requires seven players. One boy, the Block,
goes down on all fours; another, the Nail, does the same behind the
Block, with his head close to his _a posteriori_ part. A third boy, the
Hammer, lies down on his back behind the two. Of the remaining four boys
one stations himself at each leg and one at each arm of the Hammer, and
he is thus lifted. He is swung backwards and forwards three times in
this position by the four, who keep repeating "Once, twice, thrice."
When the word "Thrice" is repeated, the _a posteriori_ part of the
Hammer is knocked against the same part of the Nail. Any number of
knocks may be given, according to the humour of the players.--Keith
(Rev. W. Gregor).
A fellow lies on all fours--this is the Block; one steadies him
before--this is the Study; a third is made a Hammer of, and swung by
boys against the Block (Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_).
Patterson (_Antrim and Down Glossary_) mentions a game, "Hammer, Block,
and Bible," which is probably the same game.
Blow-point
Strutt considers this to have been a children's game, played by blowing
an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery (_Sports_,
p. 403). Nares says the game was blowing small pins or points against
each other, and probably not unlike "Push-pin." Marmion in his
_Antiquary_, 1641, says: "I have heard of a nobleman that has been drunk
with a tinker, and of a magnifico that has played at blow-point." In the
_Comedy of Lingua_, 1607, act iii., sc. 2, Anamnestes introduces Memory
as telling "how he played at blowe-point with Jupiter when he was in his
side-coats." References to this game are also made in _Apollo Shroving_,
1627, p. 49; and see Hawkins' _English Drama_, iii. 243.
See "Dust-Point."
Bob Cherry
A children's game, consisting in jumping at cherries above their heads
and trying to catch them with their mouths (Halliwell's _Dictionary_).
It is alluded to in Herrick's _Hesperides_ as "Chop Cherry." Major
Lowsley describes the game as taking the end of a cherry-stalk between
the teeth, and holding the head perfectly level, trying to get the
cherry into the mouth without using the hands or moving the head
(_Berkshire Glossary_). It is also mentioned in Peacock's _Manley and
Corringham Glossary_. Strutt gives a curious illustration of the game in
his _Sports and Pastimes_, which is here reproduced from the original
MS. in the British Museum.
[Illustration]
The Staffordshire St. Clement Day custom (Poole's _Staffordshire
Customs, &c._, p. 36) and the northern Hallowe'en custom (Brockett's
_North-Country Words_) probably indicate the origin of this game from an
ancient rite.
Boggle about the Stacks
A favourite play among young people in the villages, in which one hunts
several others (Brockett's _North-Country Words_). The game is alluded
to in one of the songs given by Ritson (ii. 3), and Jamieson describes
it as a Scottish game.
See "Barley-break."
Boggle-bush
The child's play of finding the hidden person in the
company.--Robinson's _Whitby Glossary_. See "Hide and Seek."
Bonnety
This is a boys' game. The players place their bonnets or caps in a pile.
They then join hands and stand in a circle round it. They then pull each
other, and twist and wriggle round and round and over it, till one
overturns it or knocks a bonnet off it. The player who does so is
hoisted on the back of another, and pelted by all the others with their
bonnets.--Keith, Nairn (Rev. W. Gregor).
Booman
[Music]
--Norfolk.
Dill doule for Booman, Booman is dead and gone,
Left his wife all alone, and all his children.
Where shall we bury him? Carry him to London;
By his grandfather's grave grows a green onion.
Dig his grave wide and deep, strow it with flowers;
Toll the bell, toll the bell, twenty-four hours.
--Norfolk, 1825-30 (J. Doe).
(_b_) One boy lies down and personates Booman. Other boys form a ring
round him, joining hands and alternately raising and lowering them, to
imitate bell-pulling, while the girls who play sit down and weep. The
boys sing the first verse. The girls seek for daisies or any wild
flowers, and join in the singing of the second verse, while the boys
raise the prostrate Booman and carry him about. When singing the third
verse the boys act digging a grave, and the dead boy is lowered. The
girls strew flowers over the body. When finished another boy becomes
Booman.
(_c_) This game is clearly dramatic, to imitate a funeral. Mr. Doe
writes, "I have seen somewhere [in Norfolk] a tomb with a crest on it--a
leek--and the name Beaumont," but it does not seem necessary to thus
account for the game.
Boss-out
A game at marbles. Strutt describes it as follows:--"One bowls a marble
to any distance that he pleases, which serves as a mark for his
antagonist to bowl at, whose business it is to hit the marble first
bowled, or lay his own near enough to it for him to span the space
between them and touch both the marbles. In either case he wins. If not,
his marble remains where it lay, and becomes a mark for the first
player, and so alternately until the game be won."--_Sports_, p. 384.
Boss and Span
The same as "Boss-out." It is mentioned, but not described, in Baker's
_Northamptonshire Glossary_.
Boys and Girls
[Music]
--_The Dancing Master_, 1728, vol. ii., p. 138.
Boys, boys, come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a goodwill or don't come at all;
Lose your supper and lose your sleep,
So come to your playmates in the street.
--_Useful Transactions in Philosophy_, p. 44.
This rhyme is repeated when it is decided to begin any game, as a
general call to the players. The above writer says it occurs in a very
ancient MS., but does not give any reference to it. Halliwell quotes the
four first lines, the first line reading "Boys and girls," instead of
"Boys, boys," from a curious ballad written about the year 1720,
formerly in the possession of Mr. Crofton Croker (_Nursery Rhymes_).
Chambers also gives this rhyme (_Popular Rhymes_, p. 152).
Branks
A game formerly common at fairs, called also "Hit my Legs and miss my
Pegs."--Dickinson's _Cumberland Glossary_.
Bridgeboard
[Illustration]
A game at marbles. The boys have a board a foot long, four inches in
depth, and an inch (or so) thick, with squares as in the diagram; any
number of holes at the ground edge, numbered irregularly. The board is
placed firmly on the ground, and each player bowls at it. He wins the
number of marbles denoted by the figure above the opening through which
his marble passes. If he misses a hole, his marble is lost to the owner
of the Bridgeboard.--Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy). [The owner or keeper
of the Bridgeboard presumably pays those boys who succeed in winning
marbles.]
See "Nine Holes."
Broken-down Tradesmen
A boys' game, undescribed.--Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.
Brother Ebenezer
Ebenezer is sent out of the room, and the remainder choose one of
themselves. Two children act in concert, it being understood that the
last person speaking when Ebenezer goes out of the room is the person to
be chosen. The medium left in the room causes the others to think of
this person without letting them know that they are not choosing of
their own free will. The medium then says, "Brother Ebenezer, come in,"
and asks him in succession, "Was it William, or Jane," &c., mentioning
several names before saying the right one, Ebenezer saying "No!" to all
until the one is mentioned who last spoke.--Bitterne, Hants (Mrs.
Byford).
Bubble-hole
A child's game, undescribed.--Halliwell's _Dictionary_.
Bubble-justice
The name of a game probably the same as "Nine Holes."--Halliwell's
_Dictionary_.
Buck, Buck
A boy stoops so that his arms rest on a table; another boy sits on him
as he would on a horse. He then holds up (say) three fingers, and says--
Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up?
The stooping boy guesses, and if he says a wrong number the other says--
[Two] you say and three there be;
Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up?
When the stooping boy guesses rightly the other says--
[Four] you say and [four] there be;
Buck, buck, rise up.
The boy then gets off and stoops for the other one to mount, and the
game is played again.--London (J. P. Emslie).
Similar action accompanies the following rhyme:--
Inkum, jinkum, Jeremy buck,
Yamdy horns do au cock up?
Two thà sès, and three there is,
Au'll lea'n thee to la'ke at Inkum.
--Almondbury (Easther's _Glossary_).
A different action occurs in other places. It is played by three boys in
the following way:--One stands with his back to a wall; the second
stoops down with his head against the stomach of the first boy, "forming
a back;" the third jumps on it, and holds up his hand with the fingers
distended, saying--
Buck shee, buck shee buck,
How many fingers do I hold up?
Should the stooper guess correctly, they all change places, and the
jumper forms the back. Another and not such a rough way of playing this
game is for the guesser to stand with his face towards a wall, keeping
his eyes shut.--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 59).
In Nairn, Scotland, the game is called Post and Rider. One boy, the
Post, takes his stand beside a wall. Another boy stoops down with his
head touching the Post's breast. Several other boys stoop down in the
same way behind the first boy, all in line. The Rider then leaps on the
back of the boy at the end of the row of stooping boys, and from his
back to that of the one in front, and so on from back to back till he
reaches the boy next the Post. He then holds up so many fingers, and
says--
Buck, buck, how many fingers do I hold up?
The boy makes a guess. If the number guessed is wrong, the Rider gives
the number guessed as well as the correct number, and again holds up so
many, saying--
[Four] you say, but [two] it is;
Buck, buck, how many fingers do I hold up?
This goes on till the correct number is guessed, when the guesser
becomes the Rider. The game was called "Buck, Buck" at Keith. Three
players only took part in the game--the Post, the Buck, and the Rider.
The words used by the Rider were--
Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up?
If the guess was wrong, the Rider gave the Buck as many blows or kicks
with the heel as the difference between the correct number and the
number guessed. This process went on till the correct number was
guessed, when the Rider and the Buck changed places.--Rev. W. Gregor.
(_b_) Dr. Tylor says: "It is interesting to notice the wide distribution
and long permanence of these trifles in history when we read the
following passage from Petronius Arbiter, written in the time of
Nero:--'Trimalchio, not to seem moved by the loss, kissed the boy, and
bade him get up on his back. Without delay the boy climbed on horseback
on him, and slapped him on the shoulders with his hand, laughing and
calling out, "Bucca, bucca, quot sunt hic?"'--_Petron. Arbitri Satiræ_,
by Buchler, p. 84 (other readings are _buccæ_ or _bucco_)."--_Primitive
Culture_, i. 67.
Buck i' t' Neucks
A rude game amongst boys.--Dickinson's _Cumberland Glossary_.
Buckerels
"A kind of play used by boys in London streets in Henry VIII.'s time,
now disused, and I think forgot" (Blount's _Glossographia_, p. 95). Hall
mentions this game, temp. Henry VIII., f. 91.
Buckey-how
For this the boys divide into sides. One "stops at home," the other goes
off to a certain distance agreed on beforehand and shouts "Buckey-how."
The boys "at home" then give chase, and when they succeed in catching an
adversary, they bring him home, and there he stays until all on his side
are caught, when they in turn become the chasers.--Cornwall (_Folk-lore
Journal_, v. 60).
Buff
1st player, thumping the floor with a stick: "Knock, knock!"
2nd ditto: "Who's there?"
1st: "Buff."
2nd: "What says Buff?"
1st: "Buff says Buff to all his men,
And I say Buff to you again!"
2nd: "Methinks Buff smiles?"
1st: "Buff neither laughs nor smiles,
But looks in your face
With a comical grace,
And delivers the staff to you again" (handing it over).
--Shropshire (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 526).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:--
Buff neither laughs nor smiles,
But strokes his face
With a very good grace,
And delivers his staff to you.
--Cheltenham (Miss E. Mendham).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:--
Buff neither laughs nor smiles,
But strokes his face for want of grace,
And sticks his staff in the right place.
--London (J. P. Emslie).
(_b_) Five or six children stand in a row. Another child comes up to the
first of the row, and strikes smartly on the ground with a stick. The
child facing him asks the first question, and the one with the stick
answers. At "strokes his face" he suits the action to the words, and
then thumps with his stick on the ground at the beginning of the last
line. The object of all the players is to make Buff smile while going
through this absurdity, and if he does he must pay a forfeit.
Another version is for one child to be blindfolded, and stand in the
middle of a ring of children, holding a long wand in his hand. The ring
dance round to a tune and sing a chorus [which is not given by the
writer]. They then stop. Buff extends his wand, and the person to whom
it happens to be pointed must step out of the circle to hold the end in
his hand. Buff then interrogates the holder of the wand by grunting
three times, and is answered in like manner. Buff then guesses who is
the holder of the wand. If he guesses rightly, the holder of the stick
becomes Buff, and he joins the ring (_Winter Evening's Amusements_, p.
6). When I played at this game the ring of children walked in silence
three times only round Buff, then stopped and knelt or stooped down on
the ground, strict silence being observed. Buff asked three questions
(anything he chose) of the child to whom he pointed the stick, who
replied by imitating cries of animals or birds (A. B. Gomme).