The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume Ii Part 114

In considering this group of games it is obvious, I think, that we have elements of custom and usage which would not primarily originate in a game, but in a condition of local or tribal life which has long since pa.s.sed away. It is a life of contest, a life, therefore, which existed before the days of settled politics, when villages or tribal territories had their own customs differing from each other, and when not only matters of political relations.h.i.+p were settled by the arbitrament of the sword, but matters now considered to be of purely personal relations.h.i.+p, namely, marriage. While great interest gathers round the particular marriage customs or particular contests indicated in this group of games, the chief point of interest lies in the fact that they are all governed by the common element of contest.

I will now turn to the circle games. Like the line games, this form contains games which show marriage custom, but it is significant that they all show a distinctly different form of marriage. Thus they all show courts.h.i.+p and love preceding the marriage, and they show that a distinct ceremony of marriage is needful; but this ceremony is not necessarily the present Church ceremony. The two best examples are "Sally Water" (vol. ii. pp. 149-179) and "Merry-ma-tansa" (vol. i. pp.

369-367).

In "Sally Water" the two princ.i.p.al characters have no words to say, but one chooses another deliberately, and the bond is sealed by a kiss, and in some instances with joining of hands. The circle of friends approve the choice, and a blessing and good wishes follow for the happiness of the married couple, wishes that children may be born to them, and the period of the duration of the marriage for seven years (the popular notion of the time for which the marriage vows are binding). I have printed a great many versions of this game (about fifty), and note that in the majority of them "Sally" and "Water" are conspicuous words. In fact they are usually taken to mean the name of the girl, but on examining the game closely I think it is possible, and probable, that "Sally Water" may be a corruption of some other word or words, not the name of a girl; that the word "Water" is connected, not with the name of the maiden, but with the action of sprinkling which she is called upon to fulfil. The mention of water is pretty constant throughout the game.

There are numerous instances of the corruption of words in the game, and the tendency has been to lose the sprinkling of water incident altogether.

The sitting or kneeling att.i.tude, which indicates a reverential att.i.tude, obtains in nearly all versions, as do the words "Rise and choose a young man," and "Crying for a young man." This "crying" for a young man does not necessarily mean weeping; rather I consider it to mean "announcing a want" in the way "wants" or "losses" were cried formerly by the official crier of a town, and in the same manner as in games children "cry" forfeits; but, losing this meaning in this game, children have subst.i.tuted "weeping," especially as "weeping" with them expresses many "wants" or "woes." The incident of "crying" for a lover, in the sense of wanting a lover, appears in several of these games. I have heard the expression they've been "cried in church" used as meaning the banns have been read. The choosing is sometimes "to the east" and "to the west," instead of "for the best and worst." Now, the expression "for better for worse" is an old marriage formula preserved in the vernacular portion of the ancient English Marriage Service, and I think we have the same formula in this game, especially as the final admonition is to choose the "one loved best." Then comes the very general lines of the marriage formula occurring so frequently in these games, "Now you're married, we wish you joy," &c.

In "Merry-ma-tansa" the game again consists of a marriage ceremony, with fuller details. The choice of the girl is announced to the a.s.sembled circle of friends by a third person, and the friends announce their approval or disapproval. If they disapprove, another choice is made.

When they approve, the marriage formula is repeated, and the capacity of the bride to undertake housewifely duties is questioned in verse by the friends (p. 370). All the circle then perform actions imitating sweeping and dusting a house, baking and brewing, shaping and sewing. The marriage formula is sung, and prognostications and wishes for the birth of children are followed by actions denoting the nursing of a baby and going to church, probably for a christening. In one version, too, the bride is lifted into the circle by two of the players. This may indicate the carrying of the bride into her new home, or the lifting of the bride across the threshold, a well-known custom. In another version (Addenda, p. 444) after the ceremony the bridegroom is blindfolded and has to catch his bride.

These two games relate undoubtedly to marriage customs, and to no other ceremony or practice. They are, so to speak, the type forms to which others will a.s.similate.

In "Isabella" (vol. i. pp. 247-56) the actions indicate a more modern marriage ceremony. The young couple, after choosing, go to church, clasp hands, put on ring, kneel down, say prayers, kiss, and eat dinner. The clasping of hands, putting on a ring, and kissing are more like a solemn betrothal before a marriage ceremony.

In the other marriage games which show remains of a ceremony are those of the kind to which "All the Boys" belongs (vol. i. pp. 2-6). In this game, customs which belong to a rough and rude state of society are indicated. The statement is made that a man cannot be happy without a wife. He "huddles" and "cuddles" the girl, and "puts her on his knee."

The princ.i.p.al thing here to be noted is the mention in all versions of this game the fact that some food is prepared by the bride, which she gives to the bridegroom to eat. This, although called a "pudding,"

refers, of course, to the bridal cake, and to the old custom of the bride preparing it herself, and giving some to her husband first.

Other rhymes of this kind, belonging, probably, to the same game, are "Down in the Valley," "Mary mixed a Pudding," "Oliver, Oliver, follow the King," "Down in Yonder Meadow." In all these the making and eating of a particular "pudding" or food is mentioned as an important item; in two, catching and kissing the sweetheart is mentioned; and in all, "courting" and "cuddling"; articles for domestic use are said to be bought by the bride. The formal ceremony of marriage is contained in the verbal contract of the two parties, and the important ceremony of the bridegroom and bride partaking of the bridal food. The eating together of the same food is an essential part of the ceremony among some savage and semi-civilised peoples. The rhymes have a peculiar parallel in the rude and rough customs a.s.sociated with betrothal and marriage which prevailed in Wales and the North of England.

In "Poor Mary sits a-weeping" (vol. ii. pp. 46-62) we have very distinctly the desire of the girl for a "lover." She is "weeping" for a sweetheart, and, as in the case of "Sally Water," her weeping or "crying" is to make her "want" known. She is told by her companions to rise and make her choice. In some versions the marriage lines follow, in others the acceptance of the choice ends with the giving of a kiss.

Others of a similar kind are "Here stands a Young Man who wants a Sweetheart" (vol. i. p. 204), "Silly Old Man who wants a Wife" (vol. ii.

196-99). This is a simple announcement of the young man's need for a wife or sweetheart (probably originally intended to announce his having arrived at manhood, as expressed in the expression, "he ain't a man till he's got a sweetheart and gone a-courtin'"). These verses are followed by the marriage formula. Games of this kind are used for a kiss in the ring game, without the chasing and capturing. The ordinary kiss in the ring games are probably relics of older custom. These consist of one person going round the a.s.sembled circle with a handkerchief and choosing another of the opposite s.e.x, after saying a nominy or form of set words.

This was probably originally something in the shape of a "counting out"

rhyme, to obtain sweethearts by "lot." A chase follows, and capture of the girl, and the giving and receiving of a kiss in the circle. This was a method of choosing sweethearts which prevailed until quite a late period at country festivals and fairs, but at an earlier period was a serious function. It is still customary on Easter and Whit-Monday for this game to be played on village greens, and the introduction thus afforded is held sufficient to warrant continued acquaintance between young people.

In connection with this cla.s.s of games I must point out that a game such as "Hey, Wullie Wine" (vol. i. pp. 207-210), though it cannot be considered exactly a marriage game, points to the matter-of-fact way in which it was customary for young people to possess sweethearts. It seems to have been thought not only desirable, but necessary to their social standing. A slur is cast on the young man or young woman who has no lover, and so every facility is given them to make a choice from among their acquaintances. In the game "King William" is a remnant of the disguising of the bride among some of her girl friends and the bridegroom's test of recognition, when that custom became one of the forms of amus.e.m.e.nt at weddings.

The remaining love and marriage games mostly consist of lines said in praise of some particular girl or young man, the necessity of him or her possessing a sweetheart, and their being married. These are probably fragments of the more complete forms preserved in the other games of this cla.s.s. Marriage games, preceded by courts.h.i.+p or love-making, are played in the second method of the circle form.

Among the games played in the first method of the circle form, "Oats and Beans and Barley," and "Would you know how doth the Peasant," show harvest customs. The first of these (vol. ii. pp. 1-13) shows us a time when oats, beans, and barley were the princ.i.p.al crops grown, before wheat-now, and for some time, one of the princ.i.p.al crops-came into such general cultivation as at present. All the players join in singing the words and performing the actions. They imitate sowing of seed, folding arms and standing at ease while the corn is growing, clap hands and stamp on the ground to awake the earth G.o.ddess, and turning round and bowing, to propitiate the spirit and do reverence to her. In "Would you know how doth the Peasant" (ii. 399-401) we find actions performed showing sowing, reaping, thres.h.i.+ng, kneeling, and praying, and then resting and sleeping. These actions are in both games accompanied by dancing round hand in hand. These two games, then, take us back to a time when a ceremony was performed by all engaged in sowing and reaping grain; when it was thought necessary to the proper growth of the crops that a religious ceremony should be performed to propitiate the earth spirit. I believe these games preserve the tradition of the formula sung and danced at the spring festivals, about which Mr. Frazer has written so fully.

"Oats and Beans and Barley" also preserves a marriage formula, and after the religious formula has been sung and danced, courting and marriage follows. A partner is said to be wanted, is chosen, and the marriage ceremony follows. The addition of this ceremony to the agricultural custom is of considerable significance, especially as the period is that of spring, when, according to Westermarck, natural human marriage, as also animal pairing, takes place. It is evidently necessary to this game for all the players to perform the same actions, and the centre player is not required until the choosing a partner occurs. There is no centre player in the other agricultural game, and no marriage occurs.

In "When I was a Young Girl" (ii. pp. 362-374) we have all players performing actions denoting the princ.i.p.al events of their lives from girlhood to old age. When young, enjoyment in the form of dancing is represented (in present day versions, going to school is taking the place of this), then courting, marriage, nursing a baby, and occupations which women perform; the death of the baby and of husband follows, and the woman takes in was.h.i.+ng, drives a cart to support herself, and finally gets old. Here, again, there is little doubt that this game owes its origin to those dances originally sacred in character, in which men and women performed actions, accompanied with song and dance, of the same nature as those they wished or intended to perform seriously in their own lives. "Mulberry Bush" is another descendant of this custom.

In "Green Gravel" and "Wallflowers" we have a death or funeral custom.

Originally there may have been other actions performed than those the game contains now. These two are noticeable for the players turning themselves round in the course of the play so that they face outwards.

It is this turning outwards, or "to the wall," which indicates hopeless sorrow and grief, and there is some probability that the death mourned is that of a maiden, by the other maidens of the village. The game is not a representation of an ordinary funeral.

I must here refer to the game of "Rashes" (Addenda, ii. pp. 452, 453). I have not succeeded in obtaining a version played now, and fear it is lost altogether, which is, perhaps, not surprising, as the use of "rushes" has practically ceased; but, as recorded by Mr. Radcliffe in 1873, there is no doubt it represented the survival of the time when rushes were gathered and used with ceremony of a religious nature.

Even in the extremely simple "Ring a Ring of Roses" (ii. 108-111), now only a nursery game played by very young children, there can be traced a relations.h.i.+p to a dance, in which the use of flowers, and all the dancers bowing or falling prostrate to the ground together, with loud exclamations of delight obtained. It may well be that sneezing, an imitation of which is an essential part of the game, was actually a necessary part of the ceremonial, and sneezing was always considered of sacred significance among primitive peoples. It is not probable that children would introduce this of their own accord in a dance and "bop down" game.

The games played in the third method of this group are also representative of custom. In "Old Roger" (vol. ii. pp. 16-24), the circle of players is stationary throughout; the circle sings the words describing the story, and the other players or actors run into the circle and act their several parts in dumb show. The story, it will be seen, is not the acting of a funeral, but the planting of a tree over the grave of a dead person by relatives and friends, and the spirit connection which this tree has with the dead. The spirit of the dead "Old Roger" enters the tree, and resents the carrying away of the fruit by the old woman by jumping up and making her drop the apples.

Possession of the fruit would give her power over the spirit. That the tree is sacred is clear; and I am tempted to suggest that we may possibly have in this game a survival of the wors.h.i.+p of the sacred tree, and its attendant priest watching until killed by his successor, as shown to us by Mr. Frazer in the story of the "Golden Bough."

"Round and Round the Village" (ii. pp. 122-143) shows us the performance of a recurring festival very clearly in the words which accompany all versions, "As we have done before." This conveys the idea of a special event, the event in the game marriage, and I suggest that we have here a periodical village festival, at which marriages took place. It is characteristic of this, as in "Old Roger," that the chorus or circle stand still and sing the event, while the two characters act. This acting is the dancing round the village, going in and out the windows and houses, then choosing a lover, and "follow her to London." It is quite possible that the perambulation of boundaries with which festive dances and courts.h.i.+p were often a.s.sociated would originate this game.

The perambulation was a recurring custom periodically performed, and on p. 142, vol. ii., I have given some instances of custom which, I think, confirm this.

In "Who goes round my Stone Wall" we find the players in circle form, standing still and representing the houses of a village (the stone wall), and also animals. The game represents the stealing of sheep, one by one, from the village, by a predatory animal or thief. In this game the circle do not sing the story. That element has disappeared; the two actors repeat a dialogue referring to the stealing of the sheep from the "wall." This dialogue is short, and is disappearing. The game is not now understood, and consequently is dying out. "Booman," another of the same kind, represents a funeral. The grave is dug in action, Booman is carried to his grave, the dirge is sang over him, and flowers are pretended to be strewn over.

There are other circle games, which it is not needful to examine in detail. They are fragmentary, and do not present any fresh features of interest. It is, however, important to note that a few examples have evidently been derived from love ballads, drinking songs, and toasts; some of the dance games are of this origin. This may be explained by the fact that children, knowing the general form of marriage games, would naturally dance in circle form to any ballad verses in which marriage or love and courts.h.i.+p occurs, and in this manner the ballad would become apparently a fresh game, though it would only be putting new words to an old formula of action.

Dr. Jacob Jacobsen, in _Dialect and Place Names of Shetland_, tells us that all the _vissiks_ or ballads have been forgotten since 1750, or thereby. They were sung to a dance, in which men and women joined hands and formed a ring, moving forwards, and keeping time with their hands and feet. Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 78), records that "Barbara Allen" was sung and danced in New England at children's parties at a period when dancing was forbidden to be taught in schools. "Auld Lang Syne" is a further instance.

It will easily be seen that the circle games have a distinctive characteristic compared with the line games. These, as I have already pointed out, are games of contest, whereas the circle games are games in which a h.o.m.ogeneous group of persons are performing a ceremony belonging entirely to themselves. The ceremony is of a religious character, as in "Oats and Beans and Barley," or "Old Roger," dedicated to a spirit intimately connected with the group who perform it, and having nothing belonging to any outside group. The position of the marriage ceremony in this group is peculiar. It has settled down from the more primitive state of things shown in the line marriage games, and has acquired a more social and domestic form. Except in the very significant water custom in "Sally Water," which I have suggested (ii. pp. 176, 177) may take us back to perhaps the very oldest stage of culture, all the games in this group are evidently of a later formation. Let it be noted, too, that the circle has deep religious significance not entirely absent from the customs of comparatively later times, among which the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" is the most generally known.

But in speaking of matters of religious significance, it is important to bear in mind that we are not dealing with the religion of the Church.

Everywhere it is most significant that marriage ceremony, sacred rite, social custom, or whatever is contained in these games, do not take us to the religion of to-day. Non-Christian rites can only be pre-Christian in origin, and these games therefore take us to pre-Christian religious or social custom, and this is sufficient to stamp them with an antiquity which alone would certify to the importance of studying this branch of folk-lore.

To take now the dialogue or individual form of game, the best example for my purpose is "Mother, Mother, the Pot boils over" (vol. i. pp.

396-401). Here the chorus has disappeared; the princ.i.p.al characters tell the story in dialogue, the minor characters only acting when the dialogue necessitates it, and then in dumb show. This is an interesting and important game. It is a complete drama of domestic life at a time when child-stealing and witchcraft were rife. A mother goes out to work, and returns to find one of her seven children missing. The game describes the stealing of the children one by one by the witch, but the little drama tells even more than this. It probably ill.u.s.trates some of the practices and customs connected with fire-wors.h.i.+p and the wors.h.i.+p of the hearth. There is a pot, which is a magical one, and which boils over when each one of the children is stolen and the mother's presence is necessary. A remarkable point is that the witch asks to borrow a light from the fire. The objection to the giving of fire out of the house is a well-known and widely-diffused superst.i.tion, the possession of a brand from the house fire giving power to the possessor over the inmates. The witch in this game takes away a child when the eldest daughter consents to give her a light. The spitting on the hearth gives confirmation to the theory that the desecration of the hearth is the cause of the pot boiling over. Instances of magical pots are not rare.[20]

[20] Mr. W. F. Kirby refers me to the form of initiation into witchcraft in Saxony, where the candidate danced round a pot filled with magic herbs, singing-

"I believe in this pot, And abjure G.o.d;"

or else it was-

"I abjure G.o.d, And believe in this pot."

After the children are stolen the mother has evidently a long and troublesome journey in search of them; obstacles are placed in her path quite in the manner of the folk-tale. Blood must not be spilled on the threshold. This game, then, which might be considered only as one of child-stealing, becomes, when examined on the theories accompanying the ancient house ritual, an extraordinary instance of the way beliefs and customs have been dramatised, and so perpetuated. Other games of a similar character to this, and perhaps derived from it, are "Witch,"

"Gipsy," "Steal the Pigs."

Amongst other games cla.s.sified as dialogue games are those in which animals take part. In some there is a contest between a beast of prey, usually a fox or wolf, and a hen and her chickens or a goose and her goslings; in others a shepherd or keeper guards sheep from a wolf, and in these animals of the chase are hunted or baited for sport. In the animal contest games, "Fox and Goose," "Hen and Chickens,"

"Gled-wylie," "Auld Grannie," "Old Cranny Crow," all played in the dialogue form, the dialogue announces that the fox wants some food, and he arouses the suspicion of the goose or hen by prowling around or near her dwelling. After a parley, in which he tries to deceive the mother animal, he announces his intention of catching one of the chickens. The hen declares she will protect her brood, and a contest ensues. These games have of course arisen from the well-known predatory habits of the wolf, fox, and kite. On the other hand, the games ill.u.s.trating the hunting or baiting of animals, such as "Baste the Bear," "Fox in the Hole," "Hare and Hounds," are simply imitations of those sports.

"Baiting the Bear," a popular and still played game, has continued since the days of bear-baiting.

I may also mention the games dealing with ghosts. "Ghost at the Well,"

"Mouse and Cobbler," show the prevailing belief in ghosts. Playing at Ghosts has been one of the most popular of games. These two show the game in a very degenerate condition. I need not, I think, describe in detail any more of the dialogue games. There are none so good as "Mother, the Pot boils over," but that was hardly to be expected. The customs which no doubt were originally dramatised in them all have in many cases been lost, as in the case of some versions of "Mother, the Pot boils over."

The dialogue games appear to me to be later in form than both line and circle games. They are, in fact, developments of these earlier forms.

Thus the "Fox and Goose" and "Hen and Chickens" type is played practically in line form, and belongs to the contest group, while the "Witch" type is probably representative of the circle form. But they have a.s.sumed a dramatic character of a very definite shape. This, as will be seen later on, is of considerable importance in the evidence of the ancient origin of games; but I will only point out here that this group has allowed the dramatic element to have full scope, with the result that a pure dialogue has been evolved, while custom and usage has to some extent been pushed in the background.

The next group is the arch form of game. This I divide into two kinds-those ending in circle or dance form, and those ending with a contest between two leaders. Of this first form there are several examples. "London Bridge" (i. pp. 333-50) is possibly the most interesting. Two players form the arch, all the others follow in single file. The words of the story are sung while all the players run under or through the arch. The players are all caught in turn in the arch, and then stand aside; their part is finished. In some cases the game begins by all forming a circle, and the verses are sung while the circle dances round. The arch is then formed, and all run through it in single file, and are caught in turn by being imprisoned between the lowered arms.

Also, we find the circle-dancing following the arch ceremony. In my account of this game (vol. i. pp. 341-50), I have drawn attention to the incident of a prisoner being taken as indicative of the widespread custom known as the foundation sacrifice, because of the suggested difficulty of getting the bridge to stand when the prisoner is taken. I have given a few instances of the custom, and the tradition that the stones of London Bridge were bespattered with the blood of little children, and that the mortar was tempered with the blood of beasts. In stories where a victim is offered as a foundation-sacrifice, the victim, often a prisoner, is sometimes forced to enter a hole or cavity left on purpose in the building, which is then walled or built up, enclosing the victim. In some, recourse to lottery is had; in others, as at Siam, mentioned by Tylor (_Primitive Culture_, i. 97), it was customary, when a new city gate was being erected, for a number of officers to lie in wait and seize the first four or eight persons who happened to pa.s.s by, and who were then buried alive under the gate-posts. After these customs of human sacrifice had ceased to be enforced, animals were slaughtered instead; and later still the ceremony would be performed, as a ceremony, by the incident being gone through, the person or animal seized upon being allowed to escape the extreme penalty by paying a money or other forfeit; and it may be this later stage which is represented in the game. The dancing in circle form, which belongs, I think, to the original method of play, shows us a ceremony in which people of one place are concerned, and would supersede an older line form of game, if there were one, when the custom showed a real victim being taken from outsiders by force, who would resist the demand. The circle dance would follow as the completion of the ceremony. The "line" form would also be the first portion of the game to disappear when once its meaning was lost.

The game, "Hark! the Robbers" (i. 192-99) may be a portion of "London Bridge" made into a separate game by the part of the building being lost, or the children who play both games may have mixed up the method of playing; but as it ends in some places with a contest and in some with a dance, it is difficult to say which is right.

"Thread the Needle," played by all players running through an arch and then dancing round, is a game well ill.u.s.trated by customs obtaining on Shrove Tuesday in different parts of the country. All the children play "Thread the Needle" in the streets of Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon, South Petherton, Evesham, besides other places, in long lines, whooping and shouting as they run through the arches they make. After this they proceed to the churchyard, and encompa.s.sing the church by joining hands, dance all round it three times, and then return to their homes. Here is the undoubted performance of what must have been an old custom, performed at one time by all the people of the town, being continued as an amus.e.m.e.nt of children. It was played at Evesham only on Easter Monday, and in three other places only on Shrove Tuesday, and another correspondent says played only on a special day. In other places where it is played the game is not connected with a special day or season. The circle dance does not always occur, and in some cases the children merely run under each other's clasped hands while singing the words. In the places above mentioned we see it as a game, but still connected with custom. It is a pity that the words used by the children on all these occasions should not have been recorded too. "How many Miles to Babylon"

(vol. i. pp. 231-238) may with good reason be considered a game of the same kind. It represents apparently a gateway of a town, and a parley occurs between the gatekeepers and those wis.h.i.+ng to enter or leave the town. Small gateways or entrances to fortified towns were called needle's eyes, which were difficult to enter. But notwithstanding these apparent identifications with the conditions of a fortified town, I think the practice of going through the arch in this and in the previous game relates to the custom which prevailed at festivals held during certain seasons of the year, when people crept through holed stones or other orifices to propitiate a presiding deity, in order to obtain some particular favour. This would be done by a number of people on the same occasion, and would terminate by a dance round the church or other spot a.s.sociated with sacred or religious character. "Long Duck" is another probably almost forgotten version of this game.

"Draw a Pail of Water" (vol. i. pp. 100-108), though not quite in accord with the arch form in its present state, is certainly one of the same group. This game I consider to be a descendant of the custom of "well wors.h.i.+p." In its present form it is generally played by children creeping under the arms of two or four others, who clasp hands and sway backwards and forwards with the other children enclosed in them. The swaying movement represents, I believe, the drawing of water from the well. The incidents of the game are:-