(_d_) In the _Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, Mr. Carleton gives this game as one of those played by young people of both sexes at funeral wakes. It is played in the same way as the game now is; boys and girls stand alternately in a ring holding hands, choosing each other in turn, and kissing. The other versions do not differ materially from each other, except that the Lancashire version described by Miss Dendy has evidently been corrupted quite lately, because a purer form is quoted from the same county in _Notes and Queries_. The game seems to be one of the group of marriage games arising from the fact that at any gathering of people for the purpose of a ceremonial, whether a funeral or a festival, it was the custom to form matrimonial alliances. The words are used for kiss-in-the-ring games, and also in some marriage games when the last player is left without a partner. Skin the Goatie One boy takes his stand in an upright position at a wall. Another boy stoops with his head in the breast of the one standing upright. A third boy jumps stride-leg on his back, and tries to “crown,” _i.e._, put his hand on the head of the boy at the wall. The boy on whose back he is tries every means by shifting from side to side, and by throwing up his back, to prevent him from doing so, and to cast him off. If he succeeds in doing so, he takes his stand behind the stooping boy in the same position. Another boy then tries to do the same thing over the two stooping boys. If he succeeds in crowning the standing boy, he takes his station at the wall. If not, he takes his stand behind the two stooping boys. The game goes on till a boy “crowns” the one standing at the wall.—Banchory (Rev. W. Gregor). See “Saddle the Nag.” Skipping Strutt says (_Sports_, p. 383), “This amusement is probably very ancient. Boys often contend for superiority of skill in this game, and he who passes the rope about most times without interruption is the conqueror. In the hop season a hop-stem, stripped of its leaves, is used instead of a rope, and, in my opinion, it is preferable.” On Good Friday on Brighton beach the fisher folk used to play at skipping, six to ten grown-up people skipping at one rope. Apart from the ordinary, and probably later way of playing, by one child holding a rope in both hands, turning it over the head, and either stepping over it while running, or standing still and jumping until the feet catch the rope and a trip is made, skipping appears to be performed in two ways, jumping or stepping across with (1) more or less complicated movements of the rope and feet, and (2) the ordinary jumping over a turned rope while chanting rhymes, for the purpose of deciding whether the players are to be married or single, occupation of future husband, &c. Of the first class of game there are the following variants:—