The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.Gomme, Alice Bertha
History
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.
Gomme, Alice Bertha
Folklore -- Great Britain; Games -- Great Britain
This game was played only at Christmas. The number of players was two.
The stakes were pins. One player laid in the hollow of the hand, or on
one of the forefingers, a pin, and then placed the other forefinger over
it so as to conceal it. He then held up his hand to his opponent and
said, “Headicks or pinticks?” His opponent made a guess by pointing with
his finger and saying “Headicks,” or “Pinticks.” If the guess was
correct he gained the pin, but if it was incorrect he forfeited one. The
players played alternately.—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
Another version seems to be “Headim and Corsim.” Pins are hid with
fingers in the palms of the hands; the same number is laid alongside
them, and either “Headim” or “Corsim” called out by those who do so.
When the fingers are lifted, if the heads of the pins hid and those
beside them be lying one way when the crier cried “Headim,” then that
player wins; but if “Corsim,” the one who hid the pins wins. This is the
king of all the games at the preens.—Mactaggart’s _Gallovidian
Encyclopædia_.
The editors of Jamieson’s _Dictionary_ say that the name should be
“Headum and Corsum.”
Heads and Tails
That plan for deciding matters by the “birl o’ a bawbee.” The one side
cries “Heads” (when the piece is whirling in the air) and the other
“Tails,” so whichever is uppermost when the piece alights that gains or
settles the matter, heads standing for the King’s head and tails for
the figure who represents Britannia.—Mactaggart’s _Gallovidian
Encyclopædia_. This is a general form of determining sides or beginning
a game all over the country.
Hecklebirnie
A play among children in Aberdeenshire. Thirty or forty children in two
rows, joining opposite hands, strike smartly with their hands thus
joined on the head or shoulders of their companion as he runs the
gauntlet through them. This is called “passing through the mires of
Hecklebirnie.”—Jamieson.
The editors of Jamieson append a lengthy note connecting the name of
this game with the northern belief that the wicked were condemned to
suffer eternal punishment in Hecla, the volcanic mountain in Iceland.
See “Namers and Guessers.”
Hen and Chicken
Chickery, chickery, cranny crow,
I went to the well to wash my toe,
When I got back a chicken was dead.
This verse is said by the Hen to her Chickens, after which they all go
with the Hen to search for the dead Chicken. On their way they meet the
Fox. The following dialogue between the Fox and Hen ensues, the Hen
beginning:—
What are you doing?
Picking up sticks.
What for?
To make a fire.
What’s the fire for?
To boil some water.
What’s the water for?
To boil some chickens in.
Where do you get them from?
Out of your flock.
That I’m sure you won’t.
—Derbyshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, i. 386).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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