The antiquity of our game is sufficiently attested by the wide diffusion of many of its comparatively recent variations. We remark, further, that the idea of the child-eating demon, so prominently brought forward in our American versions, is a world-old nursery conception. The ancients were well acquainted with such feminine supernatural beings. "More fond of children than Gello," says Sappho, referring to an imaginary creature of the sort. The most ancient view of this passion for stealing children was, that it was prompted by the appetite. Tales of ogres and ogresses, who carried off and devoured young children, must have been as familiar in the Roman nursery as in our own. The trait of _limping_, characteristic of "witches" in games, is equally ancient. That such demons are defective in one foot is expressed by the ancient Greek name "Empusa" (literally One-foot), to whom was attributed an ass's hoof, a representation which contributed to the mediæval idea of the devil. A child's game, in which a boy, armed with a knotted handkerchief, pursues his comrades, hopping on one foot, is known in France as "The Limping Devil."[143] This game existed also in ancient Greece. The reanimation and recovery of the children, with which the American performance closes, is a familiar trait of ancient nursery tales. No. 155. _The Ogree's Coop._ Half a century since, in eastern Massachusetts, it was a pastime of boys and girls for one of the number to impersonate an _Ogree_[144] (as the word was pronounced), who caught his playmates, put them in a coop, and fattened them for domestic consumption. From time to time the Ogree felt his captives to ascertain if they were fat enough to be cooked. Now and then a little boy would thrust from between the bars of his cage a stick instead of a finger, whereupon the ogree would be satisfied of his leanness. No. 156. _Tom Tidler's Ground._ A boundary line marks out "Tom Tidler's Ground," on which stands a player. The rest intrude on the forbidden precinct, but if touched must take his place. The words of the challenge are-- I'm on Tommy Tidler's ground, Picking up gold and silver. Or, dialectically, "_Tickler's_ not at home." This Eldorado has many different local names--_Van Diemen's land_ in Connecticut; _Dixie's land_ in New York, an expression which antedates the war; _Judge Jeffrey's land_, in Devonshire, England; _Golden Pavement_, in Philadelphia. In the Southern States, "Tommy Tidler's Ground" is the name of the spot where the rainbow rests, and where it is supposed by children that a pot of gold is buried. A highly intelligent Georgian assures us that as a boy he has often searched for the treasure, but could never find the spot where the rainbow touched the ground. "Tommy Tidler" represents the jealous fairy or dwarf who attacks any who approach his treasure. No. 157. _Dixie's Land._