Volume Ii Part 8 (1/2)

Cannot you dance the Phbe?

-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

These words are somewhat of the same character as those of ”Auntie Loomie,” and are evidently the accompaniment of an old dance.

See ”Lubin.”

Pick and Hotch

The game of ”Pitch and Toss.”-Brogden's _Provincial Words_, Lincolns.h.i.+re. It is called Pickenhotch in Peac.o.c.k's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_.

Pi-cow

A game in which one half of the players are supposed to keep a castle, while the others go out as a foraging or marauding party. When the latter are all gone out, one of them cries _Pee-ku_, which is a signal to those within to be on the alert. Then those who are without attempt to get in. If any one of them gets in without being seized by the holders of the castle, he cries to his companions, _The hole's won_; and those who are within must yield the fortress. If one of the a.s.sailants be taken before getting in he is obliged to change sides and to guard the castle. Sometimes the guards are successful in making prisoners of all the a.s.sailants. Also the name given to the game of Hide and Seek.-Jamieson.

Pigeon Walk

A boy's game [undescribed].-Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.

Pig-ring

A game at marbles where a ring is made about four feet in diameter, and boys ”shoot” in turn from any point in the circ.u.mference, keeping such marbles as they may knock out of the ring, but loosing their own ”taw”

if it should stop within.-Lowsley's _Berks.h.i.+re Glossary_. See ”Ring Taw.”

Pillie-Winkie

A sport among children in Fife. An egg, an unfledged bird, or a whole nest is placed on a convenient spot. He who has what is called the first _pill_, retires a few paces, and being provided with a cowt or rung, is blindfolded, or gives his promise to wink hard (whence he is called _Winkie_), and moves forward in the direction of the object, as he supposes, striking the ground with the stick all the way. He must not shuffle the stick along the ground, but always strike perpendicularly.

If he touches the nest without destroying it, or the egg without breaking it, he loses his vice or turn. The same mode is observed by those who succeed him. When one of the party breaks an egg he is ent.i.tled to all the rest as his property, or to some other reward that has been previously agreed on. Every art is employed, without removing the nest or egg, to mislead the blindfolded player, who is also called the Pinkie.-Jamieson. See ”Blind Man's Stan.”

Pinch

The game of ”Pitch-Halfpenny,” or ”Pitch and Hustle.”-Halliwell's _Dictionary_. Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) says this game consists of pitching halfpence at a mark.

See ”Penny Cast,” ”Penny p.r.i.c.k.”

Pinny Show

A child's peep-show. The charge for a peep is a pin, and, under extraordinary circ.u.mstances of novelty, two pins.

I remember well being shown how to make a peep or poppet-show. It was made by arranging combinations of colours from flowers under a piece of gla.s.s, and then framing it with paper in such a way that a cover was left over the front, which could be raised when any one paid a pin to peep. The following words were said, or rather sung, in a sing-song manner:-

A pin to see the poppet-show, All manner of colours oh!

See the ladies all below.