The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume Ii Part 43

"He! ho! my Katey, oh!

My bonny, bonny Katey, oh!

All the world that I should keep If I had a Katey, oh!"

-Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).

II. Sunday night and brandy, O!

My life and saying so, My life and saying so, Call upon me Annie, O!

I Annie, O!

Bonnie, bonnie Annie, O!

She's the girl that I should like If I had an Annie, O!

-Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy).

(_b_) The children stand in a row with backs against a wall or fence, whilst one stands out and stepping backwards and forwards to the tune sings the first verse. Then she rushes to pick out one, taking her by the hands and standing face to face with her, sings the other verse.

Then the two separate their hands, and standing side by side sing the first verse over again, taking another girl from the row, and so on again.

"Monday night," or "Pimlico," is the name of a singing game mentioned by the Rev. S. D. Headlam, in _The Church Reformer_, as played by children in the schools at Hoxton, which he says was accompanied by a kind of chaunt of a very fascinating kind.

Sun s.h.i.+nes

The sun s.h.i.+nes above and the sun s.h.i.+nes below, And a' the la.s.ses in this school is dying in love I know, Especially (girl's name) she's beautiful and fair; She's awa wi' (a boy's name) for the curl o's hair.

In comes (girl's name) mother with the gla.s.s in her han', Says-My dearest daughter, I'm glad you're gettin a man, I'm glad you're gettin a man and a cooper to trade, And let a' the world say he is a rovin' blade.

-Fraserburgh (Rev. W. Gregor).

All sing to "especially," boy chooses girl, and then the two whirl round, and all sing to the end.

Sweer Tree

Two persons sit down feet to feet and catch a stick with their hands; then whoever lifteth the other is the strongest.-Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_.

Compare "Honey pots."

Swinging

Rhymes were said or sung by children and young people when swinging.

They were of the same character, and in many instances the same as those given in "See-saw" and "Shuttlefeather," and were used formerly for purposes of divination. The following extract, from the _Pall Mall Gazette_ of Sept. 19th, 1895, seems to indicate an early notion connected with swinging. It is taken from one of the articles in that paper upon Jabez Balfour's diary during his residence in the Argentine Republic:-"On the 2nd November he (Balfour) mentions a curious Bolivian custom on All Souls' Day, when 'they erect high swings, and old and young swing all day long, in the hope that while they swing they may approach the spirits of their departed friends as they fly from Purgatory to Paradise.' Two days later he adds: 'I have to-day heard another explanation of the Bolivian practice of swinging on All Souls'

Day. They swing as high as they can so as to reach the topmost branches of the trees, and whenever they are thereby able to pull off a branch they release a soul from Purgatory.'"-_Notes and Queries_, 8th series, vi. 345. With this may be compared one of the methods and words used while swinging which I remember playing, namely, that while swinging, either in a room or garden, the object was to endeavour to touch either a beam in the ceiling or the top branches of a tree, singing at the same time a rhyme of which I only recollect this fragment:

One to earth and one to heaven, And _this_ to carry my soul to heaven.

The last was said when the effort was made to touch the ceiling or tree with the feet.-(A. B. Gomme.)

Miss Chase has sent me the following rhymes:

I went down the garden And there I found a farth'ng; I gave it to my mother To buy a little brother; The brother was so cross I sat him on the horse; The horse was so bandy I gave him a drop (_or_ gla.s.s) of brandy; The brandy was so strong I set him on the pond; The pond was so deep I sent him off to sleep; The sleep was so sound I set him on the ground; The ground was so flat I set him on the cat; The cat ran away With the boy on his back; And a good bounce [A great push here]

Over the high gate wall.

Said while swing stops itself:-

Die, p.u.s.s.y, die, Shut your little eye, When you wake, Find a cake; Die, p.u.s.s.y, die.

-Deptford.

Wingy, wongy, Days are longy, Cuckoo and the sparrow; Little dog has lost his tail, And he shall be hung to-morrow.

-Marylebone.

The Deptford version is practically the same as known in several parts of the country, and Mr. Gerish has printed a Norfolk version in _Folk-lore_ (vi. 202), which agrees down to the line "sent him off to sleep," and then finishes with-

With a heigh-ho!

Over the bowling green.

When they came to the "heigh-ho" a more energetic push than usual was given to the occupant of the swing, who was then expected to vacate the swing and allow another child a turn. Thus the rhyme served as an allowance of time to each child.

An amus.e.m.e.nt of boys in Galloway is described as on the slack rope, riding and shoving one another on the curve of the rope: they recite this to the swings-

Shuggie show, druggie draw, Haud the grip, ye canna fa'; Haud the grup or down ye come, And danceth on your braid b.u.m.

-Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_.

Brockett (_North Country Words_) describes as a swing: a long rope fastened at each end, and thrown over a beam, on which young persons seat themselves and are swung backwards and forwards in the manner of a pendulum.

See "Merritot."

Tait

The Dorset game of "See-saw."-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Teesty-Tosty

The blossoms of cowslips collected together tied in a globular form, and used to toss to and fro for an amus.e.m.e.nt called "Teesty-Tosty," or simply sometimes "Tosty."-Somerset (Holloway's _Dict. of Provincialisms_).

A writer in _Byegones_ for July 1890, p. 142, says, "Tuswball" means a bunch. He gives the following rhyme, used when tossing the ball:-

Tuswball, tuswball, tell unto me What my sweetheart's name shall be.

Then repeating letters of the alphabet until the ball falls, and the letter last called will indicate the sweetheart's name.

See "Ball," "Shuttlefeather," "Trip Trout."

Teter-c.u.m-Tawter