Part 2 (1/2)

This brings us to other games played by Norwegian children--not the games which are purchased in the shops in Christiania, Bergen, and other towns, but the games which are played without any of the bought things. Of course the girls have dolls and dolls' houses and dolls'

tea-parties, like the girls of every land, and there are toys of every description in the shops. The peasant children, however, who live far out in the country, never see a shop, and have to provide themselves with things to play with; but it is wonderful what an amount of amus.e.m.e.nt they can get out of an old bone, or a block of wood, tied to a yard or two of string.

As a rule their fathers are good hands at carving wood, so toys are easily made for the smaller children, and one finds everywhere such simple toys as wooden dolls, animals, miniature boats, sleighs, and carts.

But the real enjoyment of the Norwegian children--at any rate of the girls--is the outdoor game, played when the weather is fine, both in the town and in the country, wherever there are enough children to make a game. To see a bevy of these quaint little girls throwing heart and soul into their games is delightful, and they have scores and scores of different ones. In most of them dancing and singing play a great part, and the most popular form of game is what is called a ”Ring Dance,” in which, as the name implies, the players join hands and dance round in a circle.

Many of these ring dances have their counterpart in English games, and the tunes and words sung to them are almost similar. Whether we adopted them from the Norwegians, or they adopted them from us, is a matter which will probably never be decided, but several games of this kind are common to all Europe. ”Blind Man's Buff,” ”Hunt the Slipper,”

and ”Forfeits,” for instance, are found nearly everywhere. Here is the Norse version of ”Round and round the Mulberry Bush,” which in some parts is called ”The Was.h.i.+ng-Maids' Dance,” and in others ”Round the Juniper Bush”:

”So we go round the juniper bush, the juniper bush, the juniper bush, So we go round the juniper bush early on Monday morning.

This is the way we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, wash our clothes, This is the way we wash our clothes early on Monday morning.

”So we go round the juniper bush, the juniper bush, the juniper bush, So we go round the juniper bush early on Tuesday morning.

This is the way we ring out our clothes, ring out our clothes, ring out our clothes, This is the way we ring out our clothes early on Tuesday morning.”

The was.h.i.+ng operations proceed through the next three days of the week, with a verse to each day. Thus on Wednesday they hang up the clothes, on Thursday they mangle them, and on Friday iron them. Then on Sat.u.r.day they scrub the floor, and on Sunday go to church.

With each verse the children dance hand in hand round the imaginary juniper bush, singing l.u.s.tily, and ill.u.s.trating the different actions of the was.h.i.+ng operations. Finally, two and two and arm in arm, they promenade round, as if going to church, and generally prolong the walk while they sing the last verse a second time.

Another very favourite game is _Slaengkompas_, which is perhaps best translated almost literally as Scatter-Compa.s.s. It is a rapid game, and full of excitement. The players grasp hands in a circle and gallop round, singing the refrain as they go:

”Those who would join in _Slaengkompas_ must be tolerably quick!

One--two--three--and four--and five.

So comes _Slaengkompas_ again.”

When the counting begins the players let go hands, and, clapping to the tune, spin round separately until the word ”five” is reached, when they should be in position ready to join hands again and continue to gallop round in the original circle.

The aim of the game is to keep things going until the verse has been sung three times, but, of course, the players often become giddy and lose their places.

There is not s.p.a.ce to describe more of these ring dances here, but there are many of them, and a great many which our English children would do well to adopt.

Our good old street game of ”Hop-scotch” you may see played almost anywhere in Norway under the somewhat curious name of ”Hop-in-Paradise,” while in some parts ”Cat's Cradle,” though a milder form of amus.e.m.e.nt, is quite popular, and a large variety of figures is known.

Then the girls are very fond of dressing up as brides, with crowns and all, and having a mock wedding, with its accompanying procession and dancing. Above all things they love dancing, and their fathers and grandfathers play the fiddle for them for many an hour of a winter's evening, while the mothers sing nursery rhymes to the smaller children. And, as with the games, these jingles are more or less the same as our own. They have ”This is the house that Jack built,”

with the malt, and the rat, and everything, only that they prefer the name Jacob to Jack. They have ”Fly away, Peter, fly away, Paul”; and the baby on his mother's knee has the joy of being shaken about to ”This is the way the farmer rides, b.u.mpety-b.u.mpety-b.u.mp.”

CHAPTER VII

SOME FAIRY TALES

Norwegian children are just as fond of fairy stories as are any other children, and they are lucky in having a great number, for that famous story-teller, Hans Christian Andersen, was a Dane, and as the Danish language is very like the Norwegian, his stories were probably known in Norway long before they were known in England. But the Norwegians have plenty of other stories of their own, and they love to sit by the fire of burning logs or round the stove in the long winter evenings and listen to them. Of course, they know all about people like Cinderella and Jack the Giant-Killer, but their favourite hero is called by the name of Ashpot, who is sometimes a kind of boy Cinderella and sometimes a Jack the Giant-Killer.