pre-Celtic peoples of these islands—a relic therefore going back many centuries for its origin, and which is of inestimable service in discussing some important problems of the ethnic significance of folk-lore. These conclusions are entirely derived from the significant position which this game occupies in relation to Esthonian (non-Aryan) and to Teutonic (Aryan) marriage customs respectively, and therefore it is of considerable importance to note that it entirely fits in with the conclusion which my husband has drawn as to the non-Aryan origin of water-worship (see Gomme’s _Ethnology of Folk-lore_, pp. 79-105). There is, however, something further which seems to bring this game into line with non-Aryan marriage customs. The marriage signified by the game is acknowledged and sanctioned by the presence of witnesses; is made between two people who choose each other without any form of compulsion; is accompanied by blessings upon the young couple and prognostications of the birth of children. These points show that the marriage ceremony belongs to a time when the object of the union was to have children, and when its duration was not necessarily for life. It is curious to note that water worship is distinctly connected with the desire to have children (_Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, 3rd ser., ii. 9); and that the idea of the temporary character of the marriage status of the lower classes of the people is still extant I have certain evidence of. Early in November of 1895, a man tried for bigamy gave as his defence that he thought his marriage was ended with his first wife, as he had been away seven years. It is a frequently told story. A year and a day and seven years are the two periods for which the popular mind regards marriage binding. “I was faithful to him for seven years, and had more than my two children,” a woman said to me once, as if two children were the required or expected number to be born in that period. If there is a popular belief of this kind, it is strangely borne out by this game-rhyme. “First a girl, and then a boy,” may also be shown to be a result to be desired and prayed for, in the popular belief that a man’s cycle of life is not complete until he is the father of a daughter, who, in her turn, shall have a son. Miss Hawkins Dempster obtained evidence of such a belief from the lips of a man who considered he was entitled to marry another woman, as his wife had only borne him sons, and therefore his life was not (like hers) complete.