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
III. Round about the punch bowl,—one, two, three;
Open the gates and let the bride through.
Half-a-crown to know his name, to know his name, to know his
name,
Half-a-crown to know his name,
On a cold and frosty morning.
Ah! (Michael Matthews) is his name, is his name, is his
name;
(Michael Matthews) is his name,
On a cold and frosty morning.
Half-a-crown to know her name, to know her name, to know her
name,
Half-a-crown to know her name,
On a cold and frosty morning.
(Annie Keenan) is her name, is her name, is her name,
(Annie Keenan) is her name,
On a cold and frosty morning.
They’ll be married in the morning,
Round about the punch bowl, I [? Hi!].
—Annaverna, Ravensdale, Co. Louth, Ireland (Miss R. Stephen).
(_b_) The Fochabers’ game is played by girls only. The players join
hands and form a ring. They dance briskly round, singing the verse. The
last word, “me,” is pronounced with strong emphasis, and all the girls
jump, and if one falls she has to leave the ring. The game is carried on
until all the players fall. In the Belfast game, at the words “one, two,
three,” the players drop down in a crouching position for a few seconds.
In the Louth (Ireland) game the players all curtsey after the first
line, and the one who rises last is the bride. She is led outside the
ring by another, and asked to whom she is engaged. She tells without
letting those in the ring hear, and the two return to the ring saying
the second line. Then all the ring sing the next three lines, and then
the girl who has been told the name tells it to the ring, who thereupon
sing or say the remaining lines of the verse.
(_c_) The Louth version has more detail in its movements, and probably
represents the oldest form. At all events, it supplies the reason for
the words and movements, which are not quite so obvious in the other
versions. Many ancient monoliths are known as “Punch Bowls,” and it may
be that this game is the relic of an old marriage ceremony, “at the
stones.”
Purposes
A kind of game. “The prettie game which we call purposes” (Cotgrave in
_v._ “Opinion”).—Halliwell’s _Dictionary_.
Push in the Wash Tub
A ring of girls is formed. Two go in opposite directions outside the
ring, and try to get back first to the starting-point; the one
succeeding stops there, rejoining the ring, the other girl _pushes_
another girl into the ring, or _wash tub_, with whom the race is
renewed.—Crockham Hill, Kent (Miss Chase).
Push-pin, or Put-pin
A child’s play, in which pins are pushed with an endeavour to cross
them. So explained by Ash, but it would seem, from Beaumont and
Fletcher, vii. 25, that the game was played by aiming pins at some
object.—Halliwell’s _Dictionary_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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