When they have twisted into a closely-packed crowd they dance up and down, tumbling on each other, crying— A bottle of rags, a bottle of rags. In the Anderby and Nottinghamshire version of the game the children often sing— The old oak tree grows thicker and thicker every Monday morning. —Miss M. Peacock. In Mid-Cornwall, in the second week in June, at St. Roche, and in one or two adjacent parishes, a curious dance is performed at the annual “feasts.” It enjoys the rather undignified name of “Snails Creep,” but would be more properly called the “Serpent’s Coil.” The following is scarcely a perfect description of it:—“The young people being all assembled in a large meadow, the village band strikes up a simple but lively air and marches forward, followed by the whole assemblage, leading hand-in-hand (or more closely linked in case of engaged couples), the whole keeping time to the tune with a lively step. The band, or head of the serpent, keeps marching in an ever-narrowing circle, whilst its train of dancing followers becomes coiled round it in circle after circle. It is now that the most interesting part of the dance commences, for the band, taking a sharp turn about, begins to retrace the circle, still followed as before, and a number of young men, with long leafy branches in their hands as standards, direct this counter movement with almost military precision.”—W. C. Wade (_Western Antiquary_, April 1881). From this description of the “Snail Creep,” it is not difficult to arrive at an origin for the game. It has evidently arisen from a custom of performing some religious observance, such as encircling sacred trees or stones, accompanied by song and dance. “On May Day, in Ireland, all the young men and maidens hold hands and dance in a circle round a tree hung with ribbons and garlands, or round a bonfire, moving in curves from right to left, as if imitating the windings of a serpent.”—Wilde (_Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_, 106). It is easy to conjecture how the idea of “winding up a watch,” or “rolling tobacco,” would come in, and be thought the origin of the game from the similarity of action; but it is, I think, evident that this is not the case, from the words “a bundle o’ rags,” the mention of trees, and the “jogging” up and down, to say nothing of the existence of customs in Ireland and Wales similar to that of “Snail Creep.” It is noticeable, too, that some of these games should be connected with trees, and that, in the “Snail Creep” dance the young men should carry branches of trees with them. See “Bulliheisle,” “Eller Tree.” Wind, The