This game is of Japanese origin, "Tedama"[116]--that is, "Hand-balls"--being its proper name. As the specimen given shows, it closely resembles the ancient game of "Five-stones." We are informed, on Japanese authority, that stones are habitually used by boys in playing, and that the number of these varies. There can be no doubt that the two forms of this amusement are branches of the same root; and we thus have an example of a game which, having preserved its essential characteristics for thousands of years, has fairly circumnavigated the globe, so that the two currents of tradition, westward and eastward, from Europe and Asia, have met in America. FOOTNOTES: [107] "Do you like best to stay at father's or grandma's?" "There's the most berries at grandma's--I'll rather be there." _Georgia Boy._ [108] Sphaeromachia. [109] Made, according to Johnson, with the leaves of newly sprung herbs. [110] The identical name in Austria, "Kinder." [111] They are descendants of emigrants from the Upper Rhine, and speak a dialect resembling that of the Palatinate, but mixed with English words. [112] The like method in Austria, where the general idea of the game, and many particulars, are the same. There are, however, only two bases. The same way, even to the ability to throw the bat with two fingers, which is the test of a doubtful hold, is used in Switzerland to determine choice of sides in the game answering to No. 139. These coincidences seem to point to a remote antiquity of usage. [113] "Fen burnings!" "Roundings!" "Dubs!" "Knuckle down tight where you lay!" "Burnings" signifies breathing on a marble, and thereby getting certain advantages. The lads whom we quote never used the word marbles, but _mibs_. "Let's play mibs." [114] "Cherry-pits are in now; buttons won't be in for a fortnight."--_New York boy._ [115] Communicated by the late Mr. George Nichols, of Cambridge, Mass., formerly of Salem. The common name, _Jack-stones_, seems to be a corruption for _Chuck-stones_, small stones which can be chucked or thrown. "Chuckie-stanes," in Scotland, means small pebbles. "Checkstones, small pebbles with which children play."--_Dialect of Craven._