The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.Gomme, Alice Bertha
General
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.
Gomme, Alice Bertha
Folklore -- Great Britain; Games -- Great Britain
again at “Have you seen anything of my black sheep,” until she has
caught all the children behind Jacky Lingo. In two versions, Deptford
and Bocking, there is no mention of a player being in the centre, but
this is an obvious necessity unless the second player stands also
outside the circle. In the Raunds version the ring moves slowly round.
In the Hants version (Miss Mendham) the children sit in a line. The
thief takes one at a time and hides them, and the shepherd pulls them
out of their hiding-places. In the Shropshire game, the chickens crouch
down behind their mother, holding her gown, and the fox walks round
them.
(_c_) This game appears to represent a village (by the players standing
still in circle form), and from the dialogue the children not only
represent the village, but sheep or chickens belonging to it. The other
two players are—one a watchman or shepherd, and the other a wolf, fox,
or other depredatory animal. The sheep may possibly be supposed to be in
the pound or fold; the thief comes over the boundaries from a
neighbouring village or forest to steal the sheep at night; the watchman
or shepherd, although at first apparently deceived by the wolf,
discovers the loss, and a fight ensues, in which the thief gets the
worse, and some of the animals, if not all, are supposed to be
recovered. The names used in the game,—pen pound, pinfold, fold, stone
wall, sunny wall, sandy path, gravel path, sheep fold, garden, house,
are all indications that a village and its surroundings is intended to
be represented, and this game differs in that respect from the ordinary
Fox and Geese and Hen and Chickens games, in which no mention is made of
these.
Halliwell records two versions (_Nursery Rhymes_, pp. 61, 68). The words
and method of playing are the same as some of those recorded above.
There is also a version in _Suffolk County Folk-lore_, pp. 65, 66, which
beginning with “Who’s going round my little stony wall?” after the sheep
are all stolen, continues with a dialogue, which forms a part of the
game of “Witch.” The Rev. W. S. Sykes sends one from Settle, Yorkshire,
the words of which are the same as No. XIV., except that the last line
has “just one” instead of “buy one.” Mr. Newell gives a version played
by American children.
Widow
I. One poor widder all left alone,
Only one daughter to marry at home,
Chews [choose] for the worst, and chews for the best,
And chews the one that yew [you] love best.
Now you’re married, I wish ye good joy,
Ivery year a gal or a boy!
If one ’out dew, ye must hev tew,
So pray, young couple, kiss te’gither.
—Swaffham, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
II. Here is a poor widow who is left alone,
And all her children married and gone;
Come choose the east, come choose the west,
Come choose the one you love the best.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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