(_b_) The tree is the alder. It abounds in the North of England more than in any other part of the kingdom, and seems always to have been there held in great respect and veneration. Many superstitions also attach to the tree. It is possible from these circumstances that the game descends from an old custom of encircling the tree as an act of worship, and the allusion to the “rags” bears at least a curious relationship to tree worship. If this conclusion is correct, the particular form of the game preserved by Mr. Addy may be the parent form of all games in which the act of winding is indicated. There is more reason for this when we consider how easy the notion of clock-winding would creep in after the old veneration for the sacred alder tree had ceased to exist. [Illustration] See “Bulliheisle,” “Wind up the Bush Faggot,” “Wind up the Watch.” Ezzeka Old Ezzeka did one day stand Upon a barrel top; The bung flew out, and all at once It went off with a pop. —Dronfield (S. O. Addy). This game is usually played in a house or schoolroom, by boys and girls. A boy or girl is chosen who is considered to be able to stand a joke. He sits on a chair. A stool is put behind, upon which a boy called “Ezzeka” stands. Then the other boys and girls in the room sing the lines. As they are finished, Ezzeka, who has a bottle of water in his hand, takes out the cork, and pours the water upon his victim’s head. This game may be compared with the game of “King Arthur” mentioned by Brand (_Pop. Antiq._, ii. 393). Father’s Fiddle This is a boys’ game. One boy says to another, “Divv (do) ye ken (know) aboot my father’s fiddle?” On replying that he does not, the questioner takes hold of the other’s right hand with his left, and stretches out the arm. With his right hand he touches the arm gently above the elbow, and says, “My father had a fiddle, an’ he brook (broke) it here, an’ he brook it here” (touching it below the elbow), “an’ he brook it throw the middle,” and comes down with a sharp stroke on the elbow-joint.—Keith, Fochabers (Rev. W. Gregor). This is probably the same game as that printed by Halliwell, No. cccxxxv., to which the following rhyme applied:— My father was a Frenchman, He bought for me a fiddle; He cut me here, he cut me here, He cut me right in the middle. Feed the Dove An undescribed game mentioned in an old poem called _Christmas_ (i. 285), quoted in Ellis’s Brand, i. 517: “Young men and maidens now at ‘Feed the Dove’ (with laurel leaf in mouth) play.” Find the Ring O the grand old Duke of York He had ten thousand men, He marched them up the hill ago And he marched them down again. And when they were up they were up, And when they were down they were down, And when they were half-way up the hill They were neither up nor down. —Sheffield (S. O. Addy).