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When boys of the Midland counties enter into an engagement, they link the little fingers of their right hands, saying—

"Ring finger, blue bell,

Tell a lie, go to hell."

If either failed to perform, the little finger would be sure to divulge.-CH. xi. 22.

Lying is a heinous offence amongst companions, for there is a startling phrase used by grown-up people—

"I could like a thief, but damn, etc., a liar."

In Yorkshire they say→

"That's a lie with a latchet,*

All the dogs in the town cannot match it."

Carr, in his Dialect of Craven (1828) gives two other versionsThat's a lee wi' a latchet,

You may shut the door and catch it,

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Said by a schoolboy, who places his book between his knees. His two forefingers are then placed side by side, and the breadth of each is measured alternately along the length of the book. The time to get leave (to be dismissed) is supposed to have arrived or

* Hazlitt says "Or a witness." I find no explanation of "latchet"

in Carr's book.

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not, according as one finger or the other fills up the last space.— AV. III, 112.

"Those that go my way, butter and eggs.

Those that go your way, chop off their legs."

A sort of persuasive inducement, I suppose, for them to follow the speaker for the sake of forming a party for a game.-AV. 257. Or, merely for company.

Schoolboys have several kinds of divination verses on going to bed, now repeated more in mock than mark," but no doubt originating in serious belief

"Go to bed first, a golden purse ;

. . second, . . . pheasant;
third, . . . bird."

The positions they occupy in bed are suggestive of the following fortunes

SNEEZING.

"He that lies at the stock,

Shall have the gold rock;

... the wall,

Shall have the gold ball;

... in the middle,

Shall have the gold fiddle."-AV. 220.

When a boy sneezes, another who happens to be near is likely enough to exclaim, "Say your nominy." The sneezer then says Bob wood!" (cloth, etc.), and touches some article of wood,* cloth, etc., and thus proceeds—

66

* Wood, in most childish sports affords a sanctuary. Thus, in the game "Tick! and touch wood," one player may not 66 "tick" another in the chase, if the latter touch wood. It must not, however, be carried in the hand. But in Warwickshire, children simply say "barley" when they wish to rest, and this gives them safe conduct for a space. This is said to be an extension of "bar," but the explanation is doubtful. Grain plays a part in folklore little understood-and barley in particular. There is an ancient nominy of the county by which the speaker claims partial immunity after the offence of crepitation from the anus, thus

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"Julius Cæsar made a law,
Augustus Cæsar signed it,

That every one that made a sneeze

Should run away and find it."

He then whistles, though some whistle before. This is known to be more than forty years old.-Y. 25.

STORY-TELLING.

The teller of a story often concludes with

"My story's ended, my spoon is bended,

If you don't like it, Go to the next door, and get it mended."

In Gloucestershire they say

Be bow-bended, My tale's ended,

If you don't like it, You may mend it :
A piece of pudden', For telling a good un;
A piece of pie, For telling a lie.

A formula used as a "put off" is—

"I'll tell you a tale, the back of my nail,
A pinch of snuff and a pint of ale."

Somewhat similar in character is

"I'll tell you a tale.

Shall I begin it?

There's nothing in it."

"Wash, hands, wash,

Daddy's gone to plough,

If you want your hands wash'd,

Have them wash'd now."

AY. 79.

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A formula for making young children submit to the operatine of having their hands washed. Mutatis mutandis, the lines old serve as a specific for everything of the kind, as brushing L

etc.

AY. 312.

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WHISTLE-MAKING.

"Sip, sap, say; sip, sap, say,

Lig in a nettle bed,

While (until) May-day."

Said during the beating of the wetted bark of the mountainash, with a clasp-knife handle. The wetting is to make the bark slip off easily to form the case of the whistle. Yorkshire, West Riding. Y. 119.

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COUNTING-OUT RHYMES.

Before children commence a game in which it is necessary that one of their number should be the butt or slave of the majority, they stand, unlinked, in a ring, and a teller repeats a formula-applying a word or phrase to each individual, commencing at his or her own person, and working round the ring from east to west. The last member left of the ring becomes the butt, and is said to be it; which is either the impersonal pronoun, because the one so circumstanced enjoys not the privileges of the others, and in the game is a nobody or thing, so to speak-or a corruption of hit struck, ie. touched for the doom (see "I up with a pear and hot him there," etc., a Warwickshire counting-out rhyme).

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The formulary in such cases is generally rhythmical, and, in measure Trochaic, one word usually being apportioned to each member.

It is almost unnecessary to say that divination by casting lots was common in earliest days; there are many references to the custom in the Bible, and by the classic authors. Certain antiquaries claim dignity for these counting-out rhymes-as forming part of Druidical rite-of which, however, there is no direct evidence. The presumption seems based on the fact that some of the numerical words and phrases are still retained in the ancient form. The reasoning is carried on thus

Ena, mena, bora mi;
Kisca, lara, mora di;

Eggs, butter, cheese, bread,

Stick, stock, stone, dead.-Cornwall.

"This is a veritable phrase of great antiquity-the excommunication of a human being preparatory to that victim's death. In the two lines, the first lays a ban on the then chief articles of food, or life-producing elements, eggs, butter, bread; the second line is judicial, foreshadowing death by beating, or, as the line expresses it,' Beaten to death by sticks.' Mi and di are the old British ordinals, and stand for first and second; therefore, the twofold principle would make it appear as if the criminal not only suffered the deprivation of home comforts, but that death followed

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