"She, on throne of splendor seated, Shall be shining to behold, She shall lodge within a palace, She shall dress in pearls and gold." It will thus be seen that the three knights originally represent not suitors, but envoys. If we remember that marriage, in some simple countries, is still conducted through intermediaries, whose duty it is to argue, chaffer, and dispute, before coming to the decision all along intended, we shall see reason to believe that from a form representing more or less literally the usages of primitive society have sprung in the course of time a multitude of confused representations, colored by later tastes and feelings. The spirit and substance of the courteous and chivalric English rhyme cannot be later than the fourteenth century; the identity and primitive rudeness of the song in Iceland, Scotland (and, we shall presently add, Virginia), supposes an earlier date; while even then we have to bridge the gap between these forms and the Italian. We may, therefore, be tolerably sure that the first diffusion of the game in Europe dates far back into the Middle Age. No. 2. _Three Kings._ This antique rhyme, which comes to us from West Virginia, is a rude and remarkable variety of the preceding game, but quite unlike any English version hitherto printed. We find a singular and apparently connected equivalent in the Färöe isles. In the form of the dialogue there in use, as in the present game, the suitor is presented in successively higher characters, as a thrall, smith, and so on, until he is finally accepted as a prince. The Italian song has shown us a similar usage. Thus the surf-beaten rocks of the North Atlantic, with their scanty population of fishermen and shepherds, whose tongue is a dialect of the ancient Norse speech, are linked by the golden chain (or network) of tradition with the fertile vales of the Alleghenies, and the historic lagoons of Venice. The corrupt ending, too, compared with the Philadelphia version already cited, and with the Venetian game, is seen to rest on an ancient basis. The children, having forgotten the happy close, and not understanding the haggling of the suitors, took the "three kings" for bandits. * * * * * On one side of the room a mother with her daughters. On the other three wooers, who advance. "Here come three soldiers three by three, To court your daughter merrily; Can we have a lodging, can we have a lodging, Can we have a lodging here to-night?" "Sleep, my daughter, do not wake-- Here come three soldiers, and they sha'n't take; They sha'n't have a lodging, they sha'n't have a lodging, They sha'n't have a lodging here to-night." "Here come three sailors three by three, To court your daughter merrily; Can we have a lodging," etc. "Sleep, my daughter, do not wake-- Here come three sailors and they sha'n't take; They sha'n't have a lodging," etc.