FORMULAS. GAMES. Such rhymes are not of necessity continued throughout their respective games, but generally precede or open play. The usual invocation is "Boys and girls come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day, Come with a goodwill, or else come not at all." The rhyme occurs in Part I. of the Infant Institutes; or a Nonsensical Essay on the Poetry, Lyrical and Allegorical, of the Earliest Ages, etc.* In Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1783, reprint, p. 41, it commences Girls and Boys, and "whoop" is spelt hoop, and there is an additional verse "Leave your supper, and leave your sleep, Come to your playfellows in the street, Up the ladder and down the wall, A penny loaf will serve us all.” The last two lines also form part of a rhyme of St. Clements. See CUSTOMS. AW. 109 has a similar version, with two additional lines "You find milk and I'll find flour, BUILDING. And we'll have a pudding in half an hour." "Tip, top, tower, Tumble down in an hour."—AY. 168. When building with odds and ends of stone and earth. London printed for and sold by F. and C. Rivingtons, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1797. On the title-page some former possessor had written by B[aptist] N[oel] Turner, M.Á." CI. iii. 441. CARRYING. Two children join hands, thus forming a seat, to carry a third, and say "Give me a pin to stick in my chin (? cushion) Gloucestershire: Warwickshire. version In CH. xii. 479, is given this CHOOSING. London bridge is broken, And what shall I do for a token, Give me a pin to stick in my thumb, A child hides a marble or other trifle, in one hand, and holds out both fists, saying— "Handy-pandy, Jack-a-dandy, If the other guesses right, he wins the marble; if wrong, he pays one. This infantine form of gambling is alluded to as "handy dandy" in Piers Plowman, and also in King Lear. AP. 530. Other versions Handy-Pandy, sugardy candy, Guess, etc.-AB. 155. Picardy Pandy, Handy-spandy, Jack-a-dandy, Loved plum cake and sugar candy.-CJ. viii. 356. Which hand will you have } ? S.E. Cornwall. CJ. vii. 235. High church or low North Lincolns. CJ. vii. 235: CJ. viii. 356. Handy-dandy, riddledy ro, Which will you have, high or low?-AV. 116. "Neevy, neevy nack, Whether hand will ta tack, 'T topmer or t'lowmer?" Cumberland, X. 66. COBBING. (Beating.) "Nievie, nievie, nack, Fur a singul half crown." When a cobbing match was called, all the boys rushed forward and seized the unfortunate object of the match by the hair, repeating these lines "All manner of men under threescore and ten, Who don't come to this cobbing match Shall be cobbed over and over again, By the high, by the low, by the wings of the crow- I spare you the details of the tortures named saltfish and regnum; buck was a rap on the skull with the closed hand; doe, a tug of the hair, dragging out many a lock. Those who bore no part in cobbing the victim were liable to be cobb'd themselves; so were those who were so unlucky as not to be able to touch the hair of the victim, or who, while repeating the verses, neglected the prescribed rules, i.e. the standing on one leg, closing one eye, elevating the left thumb, and concealing the teeth. North Country. AS. 28. In Warwickshire and Staffordshire they torture an unfortunate victim by throwing him on the ground, and falling atop of him, yelling out the formula, "Bags to the mill." This summons calls up other lads, and they add their weight. COBBLERS or CONKERS. on Boys bore a hole in a horse chestnut, pass a string through it, and hit one chestnut against another, holding them by the string, till one string breaks, when the owner loses his chestnut. The one who first repeats the following rhyme has the first stroke "Cobbly co! My first blow, Put down your black hat, And let me have first smack." Oswestry, Shropshire. This game is elsewhere called Cobbet (Meole Brace) and Cobbleticut, horse chestnuts being known as Cobnuts. AP. 531. In Warwickshire and Staffordshire it is considered bad play to strike an opponent's string, nut against nut being the scientific play. A well-seasoned nut that has burst several other nuts is proudly styled "Cobbler of three," four, etc. Other formulas Obli, obli O, And, on striking Obli, obli onker, My nut will conquer. Herefords. CI. x. 378. Obbly, obbly, onkers, My first conquers, Obbly, obbly O, My first go. Upton-on-Severn. Lawson's Words and Phrases of, p. 23. CI. x. 177. Mr. Chamberlain, who spells the word differently, adds Hobley, hobley ack, West Worcesters. Cobbety cuts, Put daïn your nuts. South Cheshire. W. 152. CUCK or CUCKOO. (Hide and Seek.) A child hides and cries "Cuckoo !" The seekers respond "Cuckoo! cherry tree! Catch a bird and bring it me." Shropshire. AP. 222. AW. 120 calls this a game at ball, and adds the lines "Let the tree be high or low, Let it hail, rain, or snow." See Superstition; Nominies. DUCKS AND DRAKES. (Water skimming.) In this old-world game-which has given rise to the proverb, 'To make ducks and drakes of one's fortune," i.e. to make one piece follow another in waste-the player takes a flat stone, or piece of slate or earthenware, and casts it along the surface of a pool. The greater his dexterity, the greater number of times will the missile, as it travels, rebound from the water. In Gammer Gurton's Garland (1783) reprint, 1866, p. 52, the formula is "A duck and a drake, a nice barley cake, See also AW. 88. "Duck and a drake, And a lily white cake." Teesdale Words, etc., p. 39. A duck, etc., And a penny white cake, And a skew ball. "Hen, pen, Duck-an-Mallard, Amen." Jennings, West Eng. Dial., 1825, xiv. "Mallard" = Drake. "A nick and a nock, A hen and a cock, And a penny for my master." Yorkshire. Perhaps in lieu of the perquisite of a cock thrown at. CF. x. 438. This last seems to be akin to a game mentioned in Salopia Antiqua, by Hartshorne: London, 1841, and does not at all allude to water-skimming, although the rhyme is similar: "The duck with us is a large stone supporting a smaller one called the drake. The children playing endeavour to knock off the drake by flinging a stone at it, called the duckstone, crying at the same time— A duck and a drake, And a white penny cake, And a penny to pay the baker.-p. 401. This game is played in Warwickshire, but no stone is called the drake. One boy places his duck on a brick, or larger stone, or in a hole, and the others endeavour to knock it off or out. Should either miss he must be careful in picking up his stone again, lest the sentry tick (touch) him before he can return to the mark from which the stones are thrown. Should he be touched, he must replace the other as sentry, and place his own duck to be thrown at. If the duck be displaced the players may with impunity pick up their stones, for no one may be tick'd until the duck is replaced by its owner in proper position. The stone is called "Ducker" in Suffolk. |