Volume Ii Part 36 (1/2)

_Shepherd_-”I'll tie up my feet.”

(Or, ”I'll wipe my feet”)

_Wolf_--”Well, now you may go up.”

_Shepherd_-”I smell my sheep.”

The Shepherd then goes to one child, pretends to taste-using fingers of both hands as though holding a spoon and fork-on the top of the child's head, saying, ”That's my sheep,” ”That's Tuesday,” &c., till he comes to the end of the row, then they all shout out and rush home to the fold, the Wolf with them. A fresh Shepherd and Wolf are chosen, and the game starts once more.-Cornwall (Miss I. Barclay).

One player is chosen to be the Shepherd, another the Thief, and the rest the sheep, who are arranged in a long row. The Shepherd pretends to be asleep; the Thief takes away one of the sheep and hides it; he then says-

_Thief_-”Shepherdy, shepherdy, count your sheep!”

_Shepherd_-”I can't come now, I'm fast asleep.”

_Thief_-”If you don't come now, they'll all be gone, So shepherdy, shepherdy, come along!”

The Shepherd counts the sheep, and missing one, asks where it is gone.

The Thief says, ”It is gone to get fat!” The Shepherd goes to sleep again, and the same performance is repeated till all the sheep are hidden; the Shepherd goes in search of them, and when found they join him in the pursuit of the Thief.-Oswestry (Burne's _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, p. 520).

Mr. Northall (_Folk Rhymes_, p. 391) gives a version from Warwicks.h.i.+re, and says he believes the Shepherd's dog to be the true thief who hides his propensity in the dialogue-

Bow, wow, wow, What's the matter now?

A leg of a louse came over my house, And stole one of my fat sheep away.

The game is played as in Shrops.h.i.+re. The dialogue in the Cornish game is similar to that of ”Witch.” See ”Wolf.”

Shepherds

One child stands alone, facing the others in a line opposite. The single child shouts, ”Shepherds, shepherds, give warning.” The others reply, ”Warn away! warn away!” Then she asks, ”How many sheep have you got?”

They answer, ”More than you can carry away.” She runs and catches one-they two join hands and chase the rest; each one, as caught, joining hands with the chasers until all are caught.-Liverpool (Mr. C.

C. Bell.) See ”Stag,” ”Warney.”

s.h.i.+nney, or s.h.i.+nty, or s.h.i.+nnops

A writer in _Blackwood's Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, says: The boys attempt to drive with curved sticks a ball, or what is more common, part of the vertebral bone of a sheep, in opposite directions. When the object driven along reaches the appointed place in either termination, the cry of hail! stops the play till it is knocked off anew by the boy who was so fortunate as to drive it past the gog. In the Sheffield district it is played as described by Halliwell. During the game the boys call out, ”Hun you, s.h.i.+n you.” It is called s.h.i.+nny in Derbys.h.i.+re.-Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_. Halliwell's description does not materially differ from the account given above except that when the knur is down over the line it is called a ”bye.”-(_Dictionary_). In _Notes and Queries_, 8th series, viii. 446; ix. 115 _et seq._, the game is described as played in Lincolns.h.i.+re under the name of ”Cabsow,” which perhaps accounts for the Barnes game of Crab-sowl.

In Perths.h.i.+re it is described as a game in which bats somewhat resembling a golf club are used. At every fair or meeting of the country people there were contests at racing, wrestling, putting the stone, &c., and on holidays all the males of a district, young and old, met to play at football, but oftener at s.h.i.+nty.-_Perths.h.i.+re Statistical Account_, v.

72; Jamieson's description is the same.

Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_ says: A game described by Scotch writers by the name of s.h.i.+ntie; the s.h.i.+ns, or under parts of the legs, are in danger during the game of being struck, hence the name from s.h.i.+n.-d.i.c.kinson, _c.u.mberland Glossary_, mentions s.h.i.+nny as a boyish game, also called Scabskew, catty; it is also the name of the crook-ended stick used in the game. Patterson, _Antrim and Down Glossary_, under name s.h.i.+nney, says, This game is played with s.h.i.+nneys, _i.e._, hooked sticks, and a ball or small block of wood called the ”Golley,” or ”Nag.”

In London this game is called Hockey. It seems to be the same which is designed _Not_ in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; the name being borrowed from the ball, which is made of a knotty piece of wood.-Grose's _Glossary_.

It has been said that s.h.i.+nty and Hockey differ in this respect, that in the latter two goals are erected, each being formed by a piece of stick with both ends stuck in the ground. The players divide into two parties; to each of these the care of one of the goals belongs. The game consists in endeavouring to drive the ball through the goal of the opposite party.-_Book of Sports_ (1810), pp. 11-13. But in s.h.i.+nty there are also two goals, called hails; the object of each party being to drive the ball beyond their own hail, but there is no hole through which it must be driven. The ball, or knot of wood, is called s.h.i.+ntie.

See ”Bandy,” ”Camp,” ”Chinnup,” ”Crab-sowl,” ”Doddart,” ”Hockey,”