Volume I Part 15 (1/2)

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!

b.u.t.ter-milk and barley-corn; How many geese have you to-day?

As many as you can catch and carry away.

-Monton, Lancas.h.i.+re (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 _Lancas.h.i.+re 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!

b.u.t.ter-milk and barley-corn; How many sheep have you to-day?

As many as you catch and carry away.

-Earls Heaton, Yorks.h.i.+re (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 Lancas.h.i.+re 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 a.s.sist 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 (_Shrops.h.i.+re 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-b.u.t.t,” when the opposite side cry ”Away we cut.” Miss Dendy quotes an old Lancas.h.i.+re rhyme, which curiously refers to the different subjects in the Lancas.h.i.+re game rhyme.

It is as follows:-

Little boy, little boy, where were you born?