[Illustration: Fig. 2.] A number of children stoop down in a row, clasping their hands under their legs. One child stands in front of them, and acts as owner or seller; another acts as purchaser (fig. 1). The purchaser inquires— Have you any honey pots for sale? Yes, plenty; will you walk round and taste them? The purchaser goes round, pretending to taste each one in turn, inquiring the price and weight; finds fault with several, one being too sweet and the other not fresh enough, and so on. When one honey pot is discovered to the purchaser’s taste, she is lifted by the purchaser and owner, or by two children who act as weights or scales, and then swung by her arms backwards and forwards to estimate her weight and price (fig. 2). As long as the child can keep her hands clasped, so long is the swinging kept up; and as many times as they count, so many is the number of pounds she weighs. The seller sometimes said, when each one was bought— Take her and bake her, And into pies make her, And bring her back When she is done. They were not brought back, and the “owner” had to catch and bring back each one. When sold, the honey pot is taken to the other side, or “home” of the purchaser. The game goes on till all the honey pots are sold.—London (A. B. Gomme). In Sporle, a girl clasps her hands under her legs to form a seat, and two others swing her by the arms, saying— Honey pot, honey pot, over the river; When the old cat dies you shall have the liver. —Miss Matthews. In a version sent by Miss Chase, and told her by a London maidservant, the children sit as in “Hunt the Slipper.” One steps in a corner out of earshot; the rest are named “Gooseberry Tart,” “Cherry Tart,” &c., by another, who recalls the child in the corner with— Fool, fool, come to school, Pick me out a [cherry tart, as the case may be]. If he chooses the wrong one he is told— Go back and learn your A, B, C. If rightly— Take him and bake him, And give me a piece When he’s done. The child is then led off in a squatting position. Later the one who named them pretends tasting, and says, “Very nice,” or “You must be baked longer,” when another squatting walk and wait takes place. A version sent by Mr. J. P. Emslie is similar to the other London versions— “Buy my fine honey to-day. Which shall I buy? Taste ’em and try. The child would then go round, pretending to taste, saying, ‘Don’t like that one,’ till one was approved. That one was then swung round to the tune given, the words being— An apple for the king and a pear for the queen, And a good jump over the bowling green. At the last bar they swung the child higher and higher, and at the last note they swung it as high as they could. I believe the last note in the music should be G, but it was raised to give effect.”