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
In Hants the children stand _vis-à-vis_, as in a country dance. One of
the number is sent out of earshot, and the others decide with the
Captain as to the name of the bird each wishes to personate. The
Captain then calls to the child who is out, “Tom Fool, Tom Fool, come
home from school, and pick me out a blackbird,” “cuckoo,” or other bird.
If Tom Fool is wrong in his guessing after three trials, he is condemned
to run the gauntlet, being pelted with gloves or handkerchiefs not too
mercifully.—Bitterne, Hants (Miss Byford).
In Sussex there is the same action with the following words, but there
is no chasing or hitting—
Of all the birds in the air,
Of all the fishes in the sea,
You can pick me out [ ]
If the children fail to do so, they say—
Poor fool, been to school,
Learn more in a week;
Been there seven years
And hasn’t learnt a bit.
—Hurstmonceux, Sussex (Miss Chase).
The same game is played indoors in Cornwall, the reply being—
Fool, fool, go back to school
And learn your letters better.
—Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 99-80).
See “Namers and Guessers.”
Foot and Over
One boy out of a number stoops in the position for “Leap-frog” at an
agreed fixed line. From the players he chooses a Leader and a Foot. The
Leader first leaps over the stooping boy at a foot from the line; the
other players then leap in turn each at a foot further from the line,
the stooping boy moving forward from the line for each player; finally
the Foot leaps as far as the distance leapt by the last boy. If this is
accomplished, the Leader hops from the line and then leaps; the
followers hop and leap each a foot further than each other; finally the
Foot hops and leaps as far as the distance covered by the last boy. If
this is accomplished, the Leader hops twice and then leaps; the same
process going on until one of the boys fails, who then takes the place
of the stooping boy, and the game begins again. If the Foot covers any
longer distance than the Leader, the Leader stoops down.—Earls Heaton,
Yorks. (H. Hardy).
This game is general. Mr. Emslie describes the London version somewhat
differently. After all the boys had jumped over the first boy’s back, a
cry of “Foot it” was raised, and the boy who had given the back placed
one of his feet at a right angle to the other, and in this way measured
a “foot’s length” from the starting-place. All the boys then “overed”
his back from the original line, the last one crying “Foot it,” and then
the measuring ceremony was again gone through, and the game commenced
again, and continued in the same manner until one of the boys failed to
“over” the back, when he became Back.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: 1st position]
[Illustration: 2nd position]
[Illustration: 3rd position]
Football
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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