The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume Ii Part 36

_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,"

"Scrush."

s.h.i.+p

A boy's game. It is played in two ways-(1) Of a single character. One boy bends down against a wall (sometimes another stands pillow for his head), then an opponent jumps on his back, crying "s.h.i.+ps" simply, or "s.h.i.+ps a-sailing, coming on." If he slips off, he has to bend as the other; but if not, he can remain as long as he pleases, provided he does not laugh or speak. If he forgets to cry "s.h.i.+ps," he has to bend down.

(2) Sometimes sides are chosen; then the whole side go down heads and tails, and all the boys on the other side have to jump on their backs.

The game in each case is much the same. The "naming" was formerly "s.h.i.+ps and sailors coming on."-Easther's _Almondbury Glossary_. Mr. H. Hardy sends an account from Earls Heaton, which is practically the same as these.

s.h.i.+p Sail

A game usually played with marbles. One boy puts his hand into his trousers pocket and takes out as many marbles as he feels inclined; he closes his fingers over them, and holds out his hand with the palm down to the opposite player, saying, "s.h.i.+p sail, sail fast. How many men on board?" A guess is made by his opponent; if less he has to give as many marbles as will make up the true number; if more, as many as he said over. But should the guess be correct he takes them, and then in his turn says, "s.h.i.+p sail," &c.-Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 59).

See "Handy Dandy," "Neivvie-nick-nack."

s.h.i.+ver the Goose

A boys' game. Two persons are trussed somewhat like fowls; they then hop about on their "hunkers," each trying to upset the other.-Patterson's _Antrim and Down Glossary_.

See "Curcuddie."

Shoeing the Auld Mare

A dangerous kind of sport. A beam of wood is slung between two ropes, a person gets on to this and contrives to steady himself until he goes through a number of antics; if he can do this he shoes the auld mare, if he cannot do it he generally tumbles to the ground and gets hurt with the fall.-Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_.

Shue-Gled-Wylie

A game in which the strongest acts as the Gled or Kite, and the next in strength as the mother of a brood of birds; for those under her protection, perhaps to the number of a dozen, keep all in a string behind her, each holding by the tail of one another. The Gled still tries to catch the last of them, while the mother cries "Shue! Shue!"

spreading out her arms to keep him off. If he catch all the birds he wins the game.-Fife, Teviotdale (Jamieson).

See "Fox and Geese," "Gled-Wylie," "Hen and Chickens."

Shuttlefeather

This game is generally known as "Battledore and Shuttlec.o.c.k." The battledore is a small hand bat, formerly made of wood, then of a skin stretched over a frame, and since of catgut strings stretched over a frame. The shuttlec.o.c.k consists of a small cork into which feathers of equal size are fixed at even distances. The game may be played by one, two, or more persons. If by one person, it merely consists of batting up the shuttlec.o.c.k into the air for as long a time as possible; if by two persons, it consists of batting the shuttlec.o.c.k from one to the other; if by more than two, sides are chosen, and a game has been invented, and known as "Badminton." This latter game is not a traditional game, and does not therefore concern us now.

Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 303) says this is a sport of long standing, and he gives an ill.u.s.tration, said to be of the fourteenth century, from a MS. in the possession of Mr. F. Douce. This would probably be the earliest mention of the game. It appears to have been a fas.h.i.+onable pastime among grown persons in the reign of James I. In the _Two Maids of Moreclacke_, 1609, it is said, "To play at Shuttlec.o.c.k methinkes is the game now," and among the anecdotes related of Prince Henry, son to James I., is the following: "His Highness playing at s.h.i.+ttle-c.o.c.ke with one farr taller than himself, and hittyng him by chance with the s.h.i.+ttle-c.o.c.k upon the forehead" (_Harl. MS._, 6391).

Among the accounts of money paid for the Earl of Northumberland while he was prisoner in the Tower for supposed complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, is an item for the purchase of shuttlec.o.c.ks (_Hist. MSS. Com._, v. p.

354).

But the popular nature of the game is not indicated by these facts. For this we have to turn to the doings of the people. In the villages of the West Riding the streets may be seen on the second Sunday in May full of grown-up men and women playing "Battledore and Shuttlefeathers"

(Henderson's _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 80). In Leicester the approach of Shrove Tuesday (known amongst the youngsters as "Shuttlec.o.c.k Day") is signalised by the appearance in the streets of a number of children playing at the game of "Battledore and Shuttlec.o.c.k."

On the day itself the streets literally swarm with juveniles, and even grown men and women engage in the pastime. Pa.s.sing through a by-street the other day I heard a little girl singing-

Shuttlec.o.c.k, shuttlec.o.c.k, tell me true How many years have I to go through?