A game in which four play, a principal and an assistant on each side. A. stands with his assistant at one hole, and throws what is called a Cat (a piece of stick, and frequently a sheep’s horn), with the design of making it alight in another hole at some distance, at which B. and his assistant stand ready to drive it aside. The bat or driver is a rod resembling a walking-stick. The following unintelligible rhyme is repeated by a player on the one side, while they on the other are gathering in the Cats, and is attested by old people as of great antiquity:— Jock, Speak, and Sandy, W’ a’ their lousy train Round about by Errinborra, We’ll never meet again. Gae head ’im, gae hang ’im, Gae lay ’im in the sea; A’ the birds o’ the air Will bear him companee. With a nig-nag, widdy- [_or_ worry-] bag, And an e’endown trail, trail; Quoth he. —Jamieson. The game is also called “Kittie-cat.” See “Cat and Dog,” “Cudgel,” “Tip-cat.” Horns “A’ Horns to the Lift,” a game of young people. A circle is formed round a table, and all placing their forefingers on the table, one cries, “A’ horns to the lift! Cat’s horns upmost!” If on this any one lift his finger, he owes a wad, as cats have no horns. In the same manner, the person who does not raise his fingers when a horned animal is named is subjected to a forfeit.—Jamieson. Hot Cockles At Sheffield a boy is chosen for a Stump, and stands with his back against a wall. Another boy bends his back as in “Leapfrog,” and puts his head against the Stump. The cap of the boy who bends down is then taken off, and put upon his back upside down. Then each of the other boys who are playing puts the first finger of his right hand into the cap. When all the fingers are put into the cap, these lines are sung— The wind blows east, the wind blows west, The wind blows o’er the cuckoo’s nest. Where is this poor man to go? Over yond cuckoo’s hill I O. Then the boy whose back is bent jumps up, and the others run away crying out, “Hot cockles.” The boy who is caught by the one whose back was first bent has to bend his back next time, and so on.—S. O. Addy. At Cork a handkerchief is tied over the eyes of one of the company, who then lays his head on a chair, and places his hand on his back with the palm uppermost. Any of the party come behind him and give him a slap on his hand, he in the meantime trying to discover whose hand it is that strikes.—Miss Keane. “Hot Cockles” is an old game, practised especially at Christmas. One boy sits down, and another, who is blindfolded, kneels and lays his head on his knee, placing at the same time his open hand on his own back. He then cries, “Hot cockles, hot!” Another then strikes his open hand, and the sitting boy asks who strikes. If the boy guessed wrongly, he made a forfeit; but if rightly, he was released.—_Notes and Queries_, 4th series, ix. 262.