The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 33

I saw a s.h.i.+p a sailin', A sailin' on the sea, And oh, it was laden With pretty things for me [thee].

There were comfits in the cabin, And apples in the hold; The sails were made of silk, And the masts were made of gold.

Four and twenty sailors That sat upon the deck, Were four and twenty white mice With chains about their necks.

The captain was a duck, With a packet on his back; And when the s.h.i.+p began to move, The captain cried "Quack! quack!"

-Northamptons.h.i.+re, _Revue Celtique_, iv. 200; Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, No. ccclxxvii.

(_b_) A number of little girls join hands and form a ring. They all jump round and sing the verses. The game ends by the girls following one of their number in a string, all quacking like ducks.-Northamptons.h.i.+re.

(_c_) Halliwell does not include it among his games, but simply as a nursery paradox. The tune given is that to which I as a child was taught to sing the verses as a song. We did not know it as a game. The "Quack, quack!" was repeated as another line to the notes of the last bar given, the notes gradually dying away (A. B. Gomme).

Duck Friar

The game of "Leap-frog."-_Apollo Shroving_, 1627, p. 83.

Ducks and Drakes

A pastime in which flat stones or slates are thrown upon the surface of a piece of water, so that they may dip and emerge several times without sinking (Brockett's _North Country Words_). "Neither cross and pile nor ducks and drakes are quite so ancient as hand dandy" (Arbuthnot and Pope, quoted in Todd's _Johnson_).

Halliwell gives the words used in the game both formerly and at the present day. If the stone emerges only once it is a duck, and increasing in the following order:-

2. A duck and a drake, 3. And a halfpenny cake, 4. And a penny to pay the old baker, 5. A hop and a scotch is another notch, 6. Slitherum, slatherum, take her.

-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Hen-pen, Duck and mallard, Amen.

-Somersets.h.i.+re (Holloway's _Dict. of Provincialisms_).

A duck and a drake And a white penny cake.

-Hamps.h.i.+re (Holloway's _Dict. of Provincialisms_).

A duck and a drake And a penny white cake, And a skew ball.

-Peac.o.c.k's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_.

Moor (_Suffolk Words and Phrases_) gives the names for the number of times the stone emerges, as (1) "a duck;" (2) "a duck an' a drake;" if thrice, "a duck an' a drake an' a fi'epenny cake;" four times is "a duck an' a drake an' a fi'epenny cake, an' a penny to pah the baker." If more than four, "a duck," "a duck an' a drake," &c., are added. These distinctions are iterated quickly to correspond in time as nearly as may be with the dips of the stone. A flattish stone is evidently the best for this sport.

(_b_) This game is also given by Mr. Addy in his _Sheffield Glossary_, and by Holland (_Ches.h.i.+re Glossary_), Brogden (_Provincial Words, Lincolns.h.i.+re_), Lowsley (_Berks.h.i.+re Glossary_), Nares' _Glossary_, and Baker's _Northants Glossary_. Miss Courtenay gives "Scutter" and "Tic Tac Mollard" as Cornish names for the game (_West Cornwall Glossary_).

See also Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 139, and Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 326.

Butler, in his _Hudibras_ (p. ii. canto iii. l. 302), makes it one of the important qualifications of his conjurer to tell-

What figur'd slates are best to make On wat'ry surface _duck_ or _drake_.

The following description of this sport is given by Minucius Felix, ed.

1712, p. 28, which evinces its high antiquity: "Pueros videmus certatim gestientes, testarum in mare jaculationibus ludere. Is lusus est, testam teretem, jactatione fluctuum laevigatam, legere de litore: eam testam plano situ digitis comprehensam, inclinem ipsum atque humilem, quantum potest, super undas irrorare: ut illud jaculum vel dorsum maris raderet, vel enataret, dum leni impetu labitur; vel summis fluctibus tonsis emicaret, emergeret, dum a.s.siduo saltu sublevatur. Is se in pueris victorem ferebat, cujus testa et procurreret longius, et frequentius exsiliret."

"From this pastime," says Moor, "has probably arisen the application of the term to a spendthrift-of whose approaching ruin we should thus speak: 'Ah, he'ave made fine ducks and drakes of a's money, that a'

have.'"-_Suffolk Words._

Duckstone

A large stone called the Duckstone or Duck-table is placed on the ground, generally with a wall for a background, but this is of little consequence. Several boys take a stone each, and a place pretty near the Duckstone is chosen for "home." One of the boys puts his stone on the Duckstone, and he is called the Tenter. He has to guard the home and catch the other boys if he can. Each boy in turn throws his stone at the stone on the Duck-table and immediately runs home. The Tenter tries to catch him before he can touch the wall or post or whatever is chosen for the home. If the Tenter can catch him he becomes Tenter, and puts his stone on the Duckstone, and the original Tenter takes his turn in throwing. One rule of the game is that the Tenter's stone must always be on the Duck-table when he is trying to catch a boy, so if it is knocked off it must be replaced before he can try to catch the boy running "home." The chance of getting home is increased for the boy who knocks it off.-North-West Lincolns.h.i.+re (Rev. -- Roberts and Miss Peac.o.c.k).

(_b_) Similar versions are from Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy), Ireland (_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 265), Peac.o.c.k (_Mauley and Corringham Glossary_). Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) gives this game with the following addition: If a duck falls short of the Duckstone, and the one whose duck is on the stone sees that he can _wand_ or _span_ with his hand the distance between the duck thus thrown and the Duckstone, he shouts out "Wands," and if he can wand or span the distance he takes his duck off, and the duck thus thrown is put on. Holland (_Ches.h.i.+re Glossary_), Darlington (South Ches.h.i.+re), Baker (_Northants Glossary_), and Brogden (_Provincial Words, Lincolns.h.i.+re_), also give this game.

Elworthy (_West Somerset Words_) calls it "Duck," and "Ducks off" and "Cobbs off" in Dorsets.h.i.+re. In London the boy repeats the words, "Gully, gully, all round the hole, one duck on," while he is playing (_Strand Magazine_, November 1891). Newell (_Games_, p. 188) calls it "Duck on a Rock."

Duffan Ring

Name for "Cat and Mouse" in Cornwall.-_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 57.

Dumb Crambo

An undescribed game mentioned in Moor's _Suffolk Words_, p. 238.

Dumb Motions

Two sides are chosen, which stand apart from each other inside the line of their den. One side chooses a trade, and goes to the opposite side imitating working at the trade and giving the initial letters of it. If the opposite side guesses the name of the trade, the players run to their own den, being chased by their opponents. If any of the players are caught they must go to the opposite side. In turn the opposite side chooses a trade, and imitates the actions practised.-Cork, Ireland (Miss Keane).

This is called "An Old Woman from the Wood" in Dorsets.h.i.+re. The children form themselves into two ranks.

The first rank says: Here comes an old 'oman from the wood.

The second party answers: What cans't thee do?

First Party: Do anythin'.

Second Party: Work away.

This the children proceed to do, some by pretending to sew, some to wash, some to dig, some to knit, without any instruments to do it with.

If the opposite side guess what they are doing, they change sides. This game, Miss Summers believes, is very old, and has been played by several generations in the village of Hazelbury Bryan.-Dorsets.h.i.+re (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 230).

See "Trades."

Dump

A boys' amus.e.m.e.nt in Yorks.h.i.+re, in vogue about half a century ago, but now believed to be nearly obsolete. It is played in this manner. The lads crowd round and place their fists endways, the one on the other, till they form a high pile of hands. Then a boy, who has one hand free, knocks the piled fists off one by one, saying to every boy as he strikes his fist away, "What's there, Dump?" He continues this process till he comes to the last fist, when he exclaims:-

What's there?

Cheese and bread, and a mouldy halfpenny!