Volume I Part 35 (2/2)

12. Called the Dish-clout-I know not why, unless it be that it wipes up the game. The movement used in taking up the checks is thus described:-”Take hold of the sleeve of the right hand with the left; throw up the ball, and twist your right hand underneath and over your left, and catch the ball. With the hand still twisted throw up the ball and untwist and catch it.” The checks are picked up in the course of the twisting.

These I am told are the orthodox movements; and I do not doubt that in them there is much of very old tradition, although the tenth and eleventh must have been either added or modified since pot checks came into use, for the figures could not be built up with the natural bones.

Some other movements are sometimes used according to fancy, as for example the clapping of the ground with the palm of the hand before taking up the checks and catching the ball.-J. T. Micklethwaite (_Arch.

Journ._, xlix. 327-28).

I am told that in the iron districts of Staffords.h.i.+re, the round bits of iron punched out in making rivet holes in boiler plates are the modern representatives of hucklebones.-_Ibid._

In Westminster four stones are held in the right hand, a marble is thrown up, and all four stones thrown down, and the marble allowed to bounce on the hearthstone or pavement, and then caught in the same hand after it has rebounded. The marble is then thrown up again, and one of the four stones picked up, and the marble caught again after it has rebounded. This is done separately to the other three, bringing all four stones into the hand. The marble is again bounced, and all four stones thrown down and the marble caught. Two stones are then picked up together, then the other two, then one, then three together, then all four together, the marble being tossed and caught with each throw. An arch is then formed by placing the left hand on the ground, and the four stones are again thrown down, the marble tossed, and the four stones put separately into the arch, the marble being caught after it has rebounded each time; or the four stones are separately put between the fingers of the left hand in as straight a row as possible. Then the left hand is taken away, and the four stones caught up in one sweep of the hand. Then all four stones are thrown down, and one is picked up before the marble is caught. This is retained in the hand, and when the second stone is picked up the first one is laid down before the marble is caught; the third is picked up and the second laid down, the fourth picked up and the third laid down, then the fourth laid down, the marble being tossed and caught again each time. The stones have different names or marks (which follow in rotation), and in picking them up they must be taken in their proper order, or it is counted as a mistake. The game is played throughout by the right hand, the left hand only being used when ”arches” is made. The marble should be thrown up about the same height each toss, and there should be little or no interval between the different figures.-Annie d.i.c.ker.

I saw this game played in Endell Street, London, W.C., by two girls.

Their game was not so long nor so complete as the above. They did not throw all four stones down as a preliminary stage, but began with the second figure, the four gobs being placed in a square ?, nor were they particular as to which stones they picked up. They knew nothing of numbering or naming them. Their marble was called a ”jack.” They had places chalked on the pavement where they recorded their successful ”goes,” and the game was played in a ring.-A. B. Gomme.

An account sent me from Deptford (Miss Chase) is doubtless the same game. It begins with taking two ”gobs” at once, and apparently there are eight stones or gobs to play with. The marble or round stone which is thrown up is called a ”tally.” The directions for playing are-

We take twoses, We take threeses, We take fourses, We take sixes, We take eights.

Chain eggs-_i.e._, to pick up one and drop it again until this has been done to each stone. Arches-_i.e._, gobs in a row. This was described by the player as ”while the tally is up to sweep the whole row or line off the ground into the arch of the finger and thumb before catching the tally.”

(_b_) These games are variants of one common original. It is the same game as that described by F. H. Low in the _Strand Magazine_, ii. 514, as played in the London streets. The marble there is called a ”buck.”

”Pegsy” was the name of the No. 5 stage of the Wakefield version, and this varies too, inasmuch as it was the same gob which is picked up and then laid down before catching the buck.

Mr. Kinahan says, ”'Jackstones,' played with three or four small stones that are thrown up in the air and caught again, seems to have been a very ancient game, as the stones have been found in the _crannogs_ or lake-dwellings in some hole near the fireplaces, similar to where they are found in a cabin at the present day. An old woman, or other player, at the present time puts them in a place near the hob when they stop their game and go to do something else” (_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 266).

In the Graeco-Roman saloon, British Museum, is a statue originally composed of two boys quarrelling at the game of ”Tali” (see _Townley Gallery_, i. 305; Smith's _Dict. Greek and Roman Antiq._, s.v. _Talus_), and it is interesting to note that in the Deptford game the marble is called a ”Tally.”

Mr. Kinahan's note suggests that ”Fivestones” may be an independent game, instead of a derivative from ”Hucklebones.” If this is so, we have interesting evidence of the spread or transmission of one game from at least two centres. Professor Attwell, in _Notes and Queries_, 8th ser., iv. 201, suggests that ”Hucklebones” was introduced into Europe by the Romans, and was spread throughout the countries which formed the empire by means of Roman colonists and soldiers. Mr. Newell (_Games_, pp.

190-93) describes a similar game to ”Fivestones” played in Boston under the name of ”Otadama,” or ”j.a.panese Jacks.” This game is of j.a.panese origin, ”Tedama” (that is, ”Handb.a.l.l.s”) being its proper name. He says there can be no doubt that the two forms of this amus.e.m.e.nt are branches of the same root; and we thus have an example of a game which, having preserved its essential characteristics for thousands of years, has fairly circ.u.mnavigated the globe, so that the two currents of tradition, westward and eastward, from Europe and Asia, have met in America.

See ”Checkstones,” ”Dibs,” ”Hucklebones,” ”Jackstones.”

Flowers

Sides are chosen; each side must have a ”home” at the top and bottom of the ground where the children are playing. One side chooses a flower and goes over to the other side, the members of which stand in a row facing the first side. The first side states the initial letters of the flower it has chosen, and when the second side guesses the right flower they run and try to catch as many of the opposite side as they can before they reach their home. The captives then become members of the side which captured them.-Bitterne, Hants (Mrs. Byford).

Follow my Gable

[Music]

-Earls Heaton, Yorks.h.i.+re.

[Music]

-Redhill, Surrey.

I. Follow my gable 'oary man, Follow my gable 'oary man, I'll do all that ever I can To follow my gable 'oary man.

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