These observances belonged to a people who, without doubt, migrated from the West to the East. The manes and goblins are pre-Celtic, and have likewise been preserved by those who travelled, as the journey became possible, towards Asia. Some of our nursery tales, children's games, are likewise known to them. The same legends are extant in the East and West, all of which have a common origin, and that a religious one. FOOTNOTES: [G] An old English child rhyme mentioned in BARNES' _Shropshire Folk-lore_. PART II. CHAPTER I. "Oh, Love! young Love! bound in thy rosy band, Let sage or cynic prattle as he will, These hours, and only these, redeemed Life's years of ill!" GAMES. The annual calendar of dates when certain of the pastimes and songs of our street children become fashionable is an uncertain one, yet games have their seasons most wonderfully and faithfully marked. Yearly all boys seem to know the actual time for the revivification of a custom, whether it be of whipping tops, flirting marbles, spinning peg-tops, or playing tip-cat or piggy. This survival of custom speaks eloquently of the child influence on civilisation, for the conservation of the human family may be found literally portrayed in the pastimes, games, and songs of the children of our streets. Curious relics of past cruelties are shadowed forth in many of the present games--some of which are not uninteresting. The barbarous custom of whipping martyrs at the stake is perpetuated by the game of whip-top. In a black-letter book in the British Museum, date 15--(?) occurs this passage-- "I am good at scourging of my toppe, You would laugh to see me morsel the pegge, Upon one foot I can hoppe, And dance trimly round an egge." The apprentices of the London craftsmen followed the popular diversion of cock-throwing on Shrove Tuesday and tossing pancakes in the frying-pan--the latter custom is still kept up at Westminster School. Both bear allusion to the sufferings and torments of men who died for conscience sake. Dice and pitch-and-toss, also modern games of the present gutter children, in primitive times were the ways and means adopted by the learned to consult the oracles. Much in the same way the Scotch laddie and wee lassie play-- "Dab a prin in my lottery-book; Dab ane, dab two, dab a' your prins awa'," by sticking at random pins in their school-books, between the leaves of which little pictures are placed. This is the lottery-box, the pictures the prizes, and the pins the forfeits. Another favourite Scotch game is-- "A' the birds of the air, and the days of the week."