Volume I Part 19 (1/2)

Bull in the Park

One child places himself in the centre of a circle of others. He then asks each of the circle in turn, ”Where's the key of the park?” and is answered by every one, except the last, ”Ask the next-door neighbour.”

The last one answers, ”Get out the way you came in.” The centre one then makes a dash at the hands of some of the circle, and continues to do so until he breaks through, when all the others chase him. Whoever catches him is then Bull.-Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).

”The Bull in the Barn” is apparently the same game. The players form a ring; one player in the middle called the Bull, one outside called the King.

Bull: ”Where is the key of the barn-door?”

Chorus: ”Go to the next-door neighbour.”

King: ”She left the key in the church-door.”

Bull: ”Steel or iron?”

He then forces his way out of the ring, and whoever catches him becomes Bull.-Berrington (Burne's _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, pp. 519, 520).

Another version is that the child in the centre, whilst the others danced around him in a circle, saying, ”Pig in the middle and can't get out,” replies, ”I've lost my key but I will get out,” and throws the whole weight of his body suddenly on the clasped hands of a couple, to try and unlock them. When he had succeeded he changed the words to, ”I've broken your locks, and I have got out.” One of the pair whose hands he had opened took his place, and he joined the ring.-Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 50).

(_b_) Mr. S. O. Addy says the following lines are said or sung in a game called ”T' Bull's i' t' Barn,” but he does not know how it is played:-

As I was going o'er misty moor I spied three cats at a mill-door; One was white and one was black, And one was like my granny's cat.

I hopped o'er t' style and broke my heel, I flew to Ireland very weel, Spied an old woman sat by t' fire, Sowing silk, jinking keys; Cat's i' t' cream-pot up to t' knees, Hen's i' t' hurdle crowing for day, c.o.c.k's i' t' barn thres.h.i.+ng corn, I ne'er saw the like sin' I was born.

Bulliheisle

A play amongst boys, in which, all having joined hands in a line, a boy at one of the ends stands still, and the rest all wind round him. The sport especially consists in an attempt to heeze or throw the whole ma.s.s on the ground.-Jamieson.

See ”Eller Tree,” ”Wind up Jack,” ”Wind up the Bush f.a.ggot.”

b.u.mmers

A play of children. ”b.u.mmers-a thin piece of wood swung round by a cord”

(_Blackwood's Magazine_, Aug. 1821, p. 35). Jamieson says the word is evidently denominated from the booming sound produced.

Bun-hole

A hole is scooped out in the ground with the heel in the shape of a small dish, and the game consists in throwing a marble as near to this hole as possible. Sometimes, when several holes are made, the game is called ”Holy.”-Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_; _Notes and Queries_, xii.

344.

Bunch of Ivy

Played by children in pairs (one kneeling and one standing) in a ring.

The inner child of each pair kneels. The following dialogue begins with the inner circle asking the first question, which is replied to by the outer circle.

”What time does the King come home?”