The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2) / With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.

The one in whose hand the light expires has to pay a forfeit. As the spill is getting burnt out the lines are said very quickly, as everybody is anxious not to have to pay the forfeit.—Addy’s Sheffield Glossary.

At Egan, in Derbyshire, a number of persons sit round a fire; one of them lights a stick, twirls it round, and says—

The others reply—

If the ember or lighted stick goes out whilst any one is twirling it round, and whilst the lines are being said, he has to lie on the floor, when stones, chairs, or other articles of furniture are piled upon him.—S. O. Addy.

Mactaggart calls it “Preest Cat,” and says that it is an ingleside game. A piece of stick is made red in the fire; one hands it to another, saying—

Then round is handed the stick, and whomsoever’s hand it goes out in, that one is in a wad, and must kiss the crook, the cleps, and what not, ere he gets out of it.

This rhyme is common in the “Preest Cat” sport toward the border. Anciently, when the priest’s cat departed this life, wailing began in the country side, as it was thought it became some supernatural being—a witch, perhaps, of hideous form—so to keep it alive was a great matter.—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.

He also refers to a game called “Robin-a-Ree,” much like “Preest Cat,” only in passing the burnt stick round the ring the following rhyme is said—

Robin-a-Ree occurs in an old song.—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.

In Cornwall it is known as “Robin’s a-light,” and is played around the fire. A piece of stick is set on fire and whirled around rapidly in the hand of the first player, who says, “Robin’s a-light, and if he go out I will saddle your back.” It is then passed to the next, who says the same thing, and so on. The person who lets the spark die out has to pay a forfeit.—Scilly (Courtney’s West Cornwall Glossary). A rhyme at Lostwithiel is known as follows—

—(J. W.)

Jamieson (Dictionary) says, “To do ‘Dingle-dousie,’ a stick is ignited at one end and given as a plaything to a child.” Elworthy (West Somerset Words) does not give this as a game, but says a burning stick was whirled round and round very quickly, so as to keep up the appearance of a ribbon of fire. Miss Burne (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 530), says, “Children wave a burning stick in the air, saying—

an evident relic of divinations or incantations practised with bonfires.” Halliwell (Nursery Rhymes, p. 213) gives the rhyme as—

the game being played in the same way as the Sheffield version (see also Halliwell’s Dictionary and Moor’s Suffolk Words).

(b) This is a very significant game, and its similarity in miniature to the old tribal custom of carrying the fiery cross to rouse the clans at once suggests the possible origin of it. The detention of the fiery cross through neglect or other impediment was regarded with much dread by the inhabitants of the place in which it should occur. This subject is discussed in Gomme’s Primitive Folkmoots, p. 279 et seq.[Addendum]

Jack, Jack, the Bread’s a-burning

See “Mother Mop.”

Jack upon the Mopstick

See “Bung the Bucket.”

Jackysteauns

See “Fivestones,” “Hucklebones.”

Jauping Paste-eggs

A youthful amusement in Newcastle and the neighbourhood at Easter. One boy, holding an egg in his hand, challenges another to give blow for blow. One of the eggs is sure to be fractured in the conflict, and its shattered remains become the spoil of the conqueror.

See “Conkers.”

Jenny Jones

[Play]

[Play]

[Play]

I.

—Chambers’ Popular Rhymes, pp. 140-41.

II.

III.

Then—]

[Various other colours are suggested in the same way, but are found unsuitable—black because “black’s for the mourners,” green because “green’s for the croppies,” and so on till at last white is named.]

—Belfast (Notes and Queries, 7th series, xii. 492, W. H. Patterson).

IV.

[Then the same verses are repeated for—

• (1) starching clothes,
• (2) smoothing clothes,
• (3) dead,

the four lines above being repeated after each, and the verses proceed with—]

—Holywood, co. Down (Miss C. N. Patterson).

V.

VI.

—Hanwell, Middlesex, 1878 (A. B. Gomme).

VII.

—Southampton (from nursemaid of Mrs. W. R. Carse).

VIII.

—Colchester (from Miss G. M. Frances, Colchester, through Miss Morris).

IX.

—Bocking, Essex (Folk-lore Record, iii. 471).

X.

Then—]

[Then follow verses as before, beginning—

Then—]

—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

XI.

And the singing proceeds with—]

[Then follow verses as before, beginning—

Then—]

—Northamptonshire (Rev. W. D. Sweeting).

XII.

XIII.

—Enborne School, Berks (Miss M. Kimber).

XIV.

—Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).

XV.