Children's Games
The Games of Children. By Henry Bett, M. A., (Methuen. 5e.) WHAT memories do the words, " Here we come gathering nuts in May," stir in you ? Probably you -associate them with children's 'parties, when a game was a game, and had no anthropological significance. Actually this game is so ancient that it shoots us back through the centuries to two prehistoric rituals ; on the one hand; the spring festival, *hen men, women and children would go -out to the woods and fetch in maypoles and may-garlands (the • formula should 'really be " knots of may "), and; on the other, to the representation of marriage by capture, for instance, the pulling over of the
handkerchief.• ' - ' • • •
Mr. Bett has divided his book under five main headings, and has dealt with types of games that recur everywhere ; each of these main types seems to have originated in the earliest super- stitions and ceremonies; and' they were already hoary with age when RabelaiS qubted some- Of them as being- played by
Gargantua in his childhdod. • • - ' " '
Children are VerYconservative, and has been left them
. . . . .
to pass words and symbbli faithfullyfrom lip to lip' for hundiedi of generations, and thim retain what would *be utterly obliterated from human. memory. In his first book, Nursery Rhymes and Tales, the author showed how the John Ball and Jack Homer of our infancy really were historical persons. And, what was far more exciting, he traced the connexion between verses of the " Eena, Meena, Mina, •Mo " type and the " Shepherd's score " (with which shepherds all over England still count sheep), and ultimately with the Welsh language ; so it seems that our children to-day, though not one of them knows it, are the vehicles of the last traces of the incredibly remote Pre-Aryan language.
It is worth noticing Rabelais' list. He has " A mariage," "4 je te pine sans rire," " 4 je vous prend sans vert," and " Aux ponts chus." The first was a wedding game, of a type which the author deals with in his chapter called " Weddings and. FimeraLs." We have it in England in " Sally Waters," " I sent a letter to my love," etc. Mr. Bett shows how widespread was the connexion of water with marriage. It is interesting to note here that in his fascinating book London Street Games Mr. Norman Douglas quotes a children's rhyme current in the East End I shall make her my bride, Take her by the hand, Lead her across the water . . .
The second, " Je to pine sans rire," was of the laughter-provok- ing type of " Buff," or as we used to play it, "Pork and Beans." The idea is common everywhere among primitive tribes that laughing, sneezing, yawning, etc., are dangerous, inasmuch as the spirit may escape from the body at such a moment. Hence the well-known custom of saying " God bless you " when a person sneezes, which seems to be universal, and the piece of good manners which was early instilled into us, putting the hand before the mouth when yawning, was originally meant to prevent the spirit's escape. American children have a game called " Green," which corresponds to " Je vous prends sans vert." The child, when challenged, has to produce some piece.of verdure—a bit of leaf or grass— or pay a forfeit. Again this is traced to the spring festival, of which there are still many relies in customs and dances (foi example, the Furry dance at Helston, in Cornwall), some showing clearly the part which human sacrifice originally
played therein. . .
We are surprised that in his interesting list of such games he does not include " Grottoes." London children still make grottoes in the spring-time, and beg half-pennies of the passer-by, a very obvious memory of the old May-games.
" Aux ponts chus " is the forerunner of " London Bridge is broken down," which is played like " Oranges and Lemons " ; two players make an arch and the rest pass underneath, the last one being caught. Mr. Bett here has a fascinating chapter on bridges and foundations, and how, well within historical times, children were built in or buried alive beneath them to ensure the stability of the building.
The only fault one can find • with this book is that the author is so interested in every aspect of his subject, and particularly in • Comparative Anthropology, that he is apt to desert the children and their games ; as, for instance, where- he gives twelve pages to the question of •exogamy, and marriage by capture—a digreision which would seem too stiff for children, and too elementary for the serious student..
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