ANALYSIS OF “MEMOIR”

Children’s games, a definite branch of folk-lore—Nature of material for the study—Games fall into one of two sections—Classification of the games—Under customs contained in them—Under implements of play—Skill and chance games—Importance of classification—Early custom contained in skill and chance games—In diagram games—Tabu in game of “Touch”—Methods of playing the games—Characteristics of line form—Of circle forms—Of individual form—Of the arch forms—Of winding-up form—Contest games—War-cry used in contest games—Early marriage customs in games of line form—Marriage by capture—By purchase—Without love or courtship—Games formerly played at weddings—Disguising the bride—Hiring servants game—Marriage customs in circle games—Courtship precedes marriage—Marriage connected with water custom—“Crying for a young man” announcing a want—Marriage formula—Approval of friends necessary—Housewifely duties mentioned—Eating of food by bride and bridegroom necessary—Young man’s necessity for a wife—Kiss in the ring—Harvest customs in games—Occupations in games—Funeral customs in games—Use of rushes in games—Sneezing action in game—Connection of spirit of dead person with trees—Perambulation of boundaries—Animals represented—Ballads sung to a dance—Individual form games—Hearth worship—Objection to giving light from a fire—Child-stealing by witch—Obstacles in path when pursuing witch—Contest between animals—Ghosts in games—Arch form of game—Contest between leaders of parties—Foundation sacrifice in games—Encircling a church—Well worship in games—Tug-of-war games—Alarm bell ringing—Passing under a yoke—Creeping through holed stones in games—Under earth sods—Customs in “winding up” games—Tree worship in games—Awaking the earth spirit—Serpentine dances—Burial of maiden—Guessing, a primitive element in games—Dramatic classification—Controlling force which has preserved custom in games—Dramatic faculty in mankind—Child’s faculty for dramatic action—Observation of detail—Children’s games formerly an amusement of adults—Dramatic power in savages—Dramatic dances among the savage and semi-civilised—Summary and conclusion.

CHILDREN’S GAMES

Oats and Beans and Barley

[Play version 1, version 2]

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I.

—Much Wenlock (Burne’s Shropshire Folklore, p. 508).

II.

III.

IV.

—East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan).

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

—Isle of Man (A. W. Moore).

X.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

—Aberdeen Training College (Rev. W. Gregor).

XVIII.

This is the (Much Wenlock) way of playing. Among the variants there are some slight differences. In the Wakefield version (Miss Fowler), a little boy is placed in the centre of the ring first, he chooses a girl out of the ring at the singing of the third line and kisses her. They stand hand in hand while the others sing the next verse. In the Tean version (Miss Keary), the children turn round with their backs to the one in the centre, and stand still when singing “Waiting for a partner.” In the Hampshire (Miss Mendham), Brigg (Miss Barker), and Winterton (Miss Peacock) versions, the children dance round instead of walking. The Rev. Mr. Roberts, in a version from Kirkby-on-the-Bain (N.W. Lincolnshire), says: “There is no proper commencement of this song. The children begin with ‘A waitin’ fur a pardner,’ or ‘Oats and beans,’ just as the spirit moves them, but I think ‘A waitin’’ is the usual beginning here.” In a Sheffield version sent by Mr. S. O. Addy, four young men stand in the middle of the ring with their hands joined. These four dance round singing the first lines. After “views his lands” these four choose sweethearts, or partners, from the ring. The eight join hands and sing the remaining four lines. The four young men then join the larger ring, and the four girls remain in the centre and choose partners next time. The words of this version are almost identical with those of Shropshire. In the Isle of Man version (A. W. Moore), when the kiss is given all the children forming the ring clap their hands. There is no kissing in the Shropshire and many other versions of this game, and the centre child does not in all cases sing the words.

(d) Other versions have been sent from Winterton, Leadenham, and Lincoln, by Miss Peacock, and from Brigg, while the Northamptonshire Notes and Queries, ii. 161, gives another by Mr. R. S. Baker. The words are practically the same as the versions printed above from Lincolnshire and Northants. The words of the Madeley version are the same as the Much Wenlock (No. 1). The Nottingham tune (Miss Youngman), and three others sent with the words, are the same as the Madeley tune printed above.

(e) This interesting game is essentially of rural origin, and probably it is for this reason that Mr. Newell did not obtain any version from England for his Games and Songs of American Children, but his note that it “seems, strangely enough, to be unknown in Great Britain” (p. 80), is effectually disproved by the examples I have collected. There is no need in this case for an analysis of the rhymes. The variants fall into three categories: (1) the questioning form of the words, (2) the affirming form, and (3) the indiscriminate form, as in Nos. xvi. to xviii., and of these I am disposed to consider the first to represent the earliest idea of the game.

If the crops mentioned in the verses be considered, it will be found that the following table represents the different localities:—

The first three are the more constant words, but it is curious that Norfolk, not a hop county, should have adopted that grain into the game. Hops are grown there on rare occasions, and it is probable that the game may have been introduced from a hop county.

In Northants Notes and Queries, i. 163-164, Mr. R. S. Baker gives a most interesting account of the game (No. iii.) as follows:—“Having been recently invited to join the Annual Christmas Entertainment of the Raunds Church Choir, I noticed that a very favourite pastime of the evening was one which I shall call ‘Choosing Partners.’ The game is played thus: The young men and maidens join hands indiscriminately, and form a ring; within the ring stand a lad and a lass; then they all step round the way the sun goes, to a plain tune. During the singing of the two last lines [of the first part] they all disjoin hands, stop and stamp their feet and clap their hands and turn right round . . . then join hands [while singing the second verse]. The two in the middle at [‘Open the ring’] choose each of them a partner of the opposite sex, which they do by pointing to the one chosen; then they continue round, to the words [sang in next verse], the two pairs of partners crossing hands, first right and then left, and revolving opposite ways alternately. The march round is temporarily suspended for choosing partners. The partners salute [at ‘Now you’re married’], or, rather, each lad kisses his chosen lass; the first two partners go out, the game continues as before, and every one in the ring has chosen and been chosen, and every lad has saluted every lass. The antiquity of the pastime is evidenced by its not mentioning wheat; wheat was in remote times an exceptional crop—the village people lived on oatmeal and barley bread. It also points, possibly, to a period when most of the land lay in grass. Portions of the open fields were cultivated, and after a few years of merciless cropping were laid down again to recuperate. ‘Helping to chop the wood’ recalls the time when coal was not known as fuel. I am indebted for the correct words of the above to a Raunds maiden, Miss B. Finding, a native of the village, who kindly wrote them down for me.” Mr. Baker does not say how Miss Finding got the peculiar spelling of this version. It would be interesting to know whether this form of spelling was used as indicative of the pronunciation of the children, or of the supposed antiquity of the game. The Rev. W. D. Sweeting, also writes at the same reference, “The same game is played at the school feast at Maxey; but the words, as I have taken them down, vary from those given above. We have no mention of any crop except barley, which is largely grown in the district; and the refrain, repeated after the second and sixth lines, is ‘waiting for the harvest.’ A lady suggested to me that the two first lines of the conclusion are addressed to the bride of the game, and the two last, which in our version run, ‘You must be kind and very good,’ apply to the happy swain.”

This interesting note not only suggests, as Mr. Baker and Mr. Sweeting say, the antiquity of the game and its connection with harvest at a time when the farms were all laid in open fields, but it points further to the custom of courtship and marriage being the outcome of village festivals and dances held after spring sowing and harvest gatherings. It seems in Northamptonshire not to have quite reached the stage of the pure children’s game before it was taken note of by Mr. Baker, and this is an important illustration of the descent of children’s games from customs. As soon as it has become a child’s game, however, the process of decadence sets in. Thus, besides verbal alterations, the lines relating to farming have dropped out of the Wakefield version. It is abundantly clear from the more perfect game-rhymes that the waiting for a partner is an episode in the harvest customs, as if, when the outdoor business of the season was finished, the domestic element becomes the next important transaction in the year’s proceedings. The curious four-lined formula applicable to the duties of married life may indeed be a relic of those rhythmical formulæ which are found throughout all early legal ceremonies. A reference to Mr. Ralston’s section on marriage songs, in his Songs of the Russian People, makes it clear that marriages in Russia were contracted at the gatherings called Besyedas (p. 264), which were social gatherings held during October after the completion of the harvest; and the practice is, of course, not confined to Russia.

It is also probable that this game may have preserved the tradition of a formula sung at the sowing of grain, in order to propitiate the earth goddess to promote and quicken the growth of the crops. Turning around or bowing to fields and lands and pantomimic actions in imitation of those actually required, are very general in the history of sympathetic magic among primitive peoples, as reference to Mr. Frazer’s Golden Bough will prove; and taking the rhyming formula together with the imitative action, I am inclined to believe that in this game we may have the last relics of a very ancient agricultural rite.

Obadiah

The players stand in a row. The child at the head of the row says, “My son Obadiah is going to be married, twiddle your thumbs,” suiting the action to the word by clasping the fingers of both hands together, and rapidly “twiddling” the thumbs. The next child repeats both words and actions, and so on all along the row, all the players continuing the “twiddling.” The top child repeats the words, adding (very gravely), “Fall on one knee,” the whole row follows suit as before (still twiddling their thumbs). The top child repeats from the beginning, adding, “Do as you see me,” and the rest of the children follow suit, as before. Just as the last child repeats the words, the top child falls on the child next to her, and all go down like a row of ninepins. The whole is said in a sing-song way. This game was, so far as I can ascertain, truly East Anglian. I have never been able to hear of it in other parts of England or Wales.—Bexley Heath (Miss Morris). Also played in London.

See “Solomon.”

Odd or Even

See “Prickie and Jockie.”

Odd-man

Old Dame

I.

II.

(b) One child sits upon a little stool. The others march round her in single file, taking hold of each other’s frocks. They say in a sing-song manner the first two lines, and the old woman answers by telling them the hour. The questions and answers are repeated until the old woman says, “It’s eleven, and you’ll be hanged at twelve.” Then the children all run off in different directions and the old woman runs after them. Whoever she catches becomes old woman, and the game is continued.—Yorkshire (Miss E. Cadman). In the version given from Halliwell there is a further dialogue, it will be seen, before the old woman chases.

(c) The use of the Yorkshire word “beck” (“stream”) in the first variant suggests that this may be the original version from which the “Beccles” version has been adapted, a particular place being substituted for the general. The game somewhat resembles “Fox and Goose.”

Old Roger is Dead

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—Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy).

II.

III.

—Ordsall, Nottinghamshire (Miss Matthews).

IV.