The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc. — John Shaqi
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
An ancient game played in Angus and Lothian. Three play, and they are
provided with clubs. These clubs are called “dogs.” The players cut out
two holes, each about a foot in diameter, and seven inches in depth. The
distance between them is about twenty-six feet. One stands at each hole
with a club. A piece of wood about four inches long and one inch in
diameter, called a Cat, is thrown from the one hole towards the other by
a third person. The object is to prevent the Cat from getting into the
hole. Every time that it enters the hole, he who has the club at that
hole loses the club, and he who threw the Cat gets possession both of
the club and of the hole, while the former possessor is obliged to take
charge of the Cat. If the Cat be struck, he who strikes it changes
places with the person who holds the other club; and as often as these
positions are changed one is counted in the game by the two who hold the
clubs, and who are viewed as partners.—Jamieson.
(_b_) This is not unlike the “Stool-Ball” described by Strutt (_Sports
and Pastimes_, p. 76), but it more nearly resembles “Club-Ball,” an
ancient English game (ibid., p. 83). The game of “Cat,” played with
sticks and a small piece of wood, rising in the middle, so as to rebound
when struck on either side, is alluded to in _Poor Robin’s Almanack_ for
1709, and by Brand. Leigh (_Cheshire Glossary_) gives “Scute” as another
name for the game of “Cat,” probably from _scute_ (O.W.), for boat,
which it resembles in shape.
See “Cudgel,” “Kit-cat,” “Tip-cat.”
Cat-Beds
The name of a game played by young people in Perthshire. In this game,
one, unobserved by all the rest, cuts with a knife the turf in very
unequal angles. These are all covered, and each player puts his hand on
what he supposes to be the smallest, as every one has to cut off the
whole surface of his division. The rate of cutting is regulated by a
throw of the knife, and the person who throws is obliged to cut as deep
as the knife goes. He who is last in getting his bed cut up is bound to
carry the whole of the clods, crawling on his hands and feet, to a
certain distance measured by the one next to him, who throws the knife
through his legs. If the bearer of the clods let any of them fall, the
rest have a right to pelt him with them. They frequently lay them very
loosely on, that they may have the pleasure of pelting.—Jamieson.
Cat’s Cradle
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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