Volume I Part 29 (2/2)

(_b_) This game was a general favourite at juvenile parties years ago.

The hands were held in the posture described by Halliwell, but any child was pitched upon for the first finder, and afterwards the child in whose hands the ring was found had to be finder. There was no guessing; the closed hands were looked into (A. B. Gomme). Mr. Addy has collected a similar game called ”My lady's lost a gold ring,” and Mr. Newell (_Games and Songs of American Children_, p. 150) has another, ”Hold fast my gold ring.”

Dibbs

A game played with the small knuckle-bones taken from legs of mutton; these bones are themselves called ”dibs” (Lowsley's _Glossary of Berks.h.i.+re Words_). Holloway's _Dictionary_ says five of these bones are used by boys, with which they play a game called ”Dibs” in West Suss.e.x.

See ”Check-stones,” ”Fivestones,” ”Hucklebones.”

Dinah

[Music]

No one in the house but Dinah, Dinah, No one in the house I know, I know; No one in the house but Dinah, Dinah, Playing on the old banjo.

A ring is formed, and a girl stands blindfolded inside. As the verse is sung and finished, Dinah goes to any one in the ring, and, if successful in guessing her name, takes her place, the other taking the place of Dinah, the game going on as before.-Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy).

”Dinah” was a Christy Minstrel song in the ”fifties.” It is probable that the game, which resembles ”Buff,” has been played to the tune of the song. Singing a chorus would soon follow.

See ”Buff,” ”m.u.f.fin Man.”

Dip o' the Kit

A rustic game, undescribed and marked as obsolescent.-Peac.o.c.k's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_.

Dish-a-loof

A singular rustic amus.e.m.e.nt. One lays his hand down on a table, another clashes his upon it, a third his on that, and so on (fig. 1). When all the players have done this, the one who has his hand on the board pulls it out and lays it on the one uppermost (fig. 2): they all follow in rotation, and so a continual clas.h.i.+ng and das.h.i.+ng is kept up; hence the name ”Dish.” Those who win the game are those who stand out longest-viz., those who are best at enduring pain. Tender hands could not stand it a moment: one dash of a rustic ”loof” would make the blood spurt from the tip of every finger. It is a piece of pastime to country lads of the same nature as ”Hard Knuckles” (Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_). This is a well-known game for small children in London.

After each child's hands have been withdrawn and replaced on top as many times as possible without deranging the order, a general scramble and knocking of hands together ends the game (A. B. Gomme). Jamieson (_Etymological Dict._) gives this as a sport of children.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

See ”Dump,” ”Green Gra.s.s,” ”Hot c.o.c.kles.”

Doddart

A game played in a large level field with a bent stick called ”doddart.”

Two parties, headed by two captains, endeavour to drive a wooden ball to their respective boundaries (Halliwell's _Dictionary_). Brockett (_North Country Words_) adds to this that the captains are ent.i.tled to choose their followers by alternate votes. A piece of globular wood called an ”orr” or ”coit” is thrown down in the middle of the field and driven to one of two opposite hedges-the alley, hail-goal, or boundary. The same game as ”Clubby,” ”Hockey,” ”s.h.i.+nney,” ”s.h.i.+nneyhaw.”

Doncaster Cherries

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