Now they’re got married, they’re bound to obey, Bound to obey in every degree; And as you go round kiss all but me. —Belfast, Ireland (W. H. Patterson). The players form a ring and sing the first three verses. Then one of the players chooses a girl from the ring. The first three verses are again sung until the whole ring is arranged in couples; then the first couple kneels in the middle, and the rest dance round them singing the marriage formula; then the second couple, and so on, each couple kissing. Solomon The players knelt in a line; the one at the head, in a very solemn tone, chaunted, “Solomon had a great dog;” the others answered in the same way, “Just so” (this was always the refrain). Then the first speaker made two or three more ridiculous speeches, ending with, “And at last this great dog died, and fell down,” giving at the same time a violent lurch against his next neighbour, who, not expecting it, fell against his, and so on, to the end of the line.—Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 50). See “Obadiah,” “Quaker’s Wedding.” Sort’em-billyort’em A Lancashire game, very similar to “Hot Peas and Bacon.”—Halliwell’s _Dictionary_. Sow-in-the-Kirk A large hole is made in the ground, surrounded by smaller ones, according to the number of the players, every one of whom has a shintie, or hooked stick. The middle hole is called the kirk. He who takes the lead in the game is called the sow-driver. His object is to drive a small piece of wood or bone, called the sow, into the large hole or kirk; while that of his opponents, every one of whom keeps his shintie in one of the smaller holes, is to frustrate his exertions by driving back the sow. If he succeeds, either in knocking it into one of the small holes, while one of his antagonists is in the act of striking it back, he is released from the drudgery of being driver. In the latter case, the person whose vacancy he has occupied takes the servile station which he formerly held.—Lothian (Jamieson). This is said to be the same game with “Church and Mice” in Fife. Jamieson’s description is not very lucid. It appears that each player must hold his shintie with its end in his hole, and it is only when he takes it out to prevent the sow-driver getting his sow into or towards the kirk, that the sow-driver has the chance of putting the sow into the player’s hole, and so causing that player to take the place of sow-driver. See “Kirk the Gussie.” Span Counter A common game among boys. “You shall finde me playing at Span Counter.”—Dekker’s _Northward Hoe_. Toone, _Etymological Dictionary_, mentions this as a juvenile game played with counters. Boys shall not play At span counter or blow pipe. —Donne (_Satire_ iv.).