CHILDREN'S GAMES.* THE term Folk-lore is loosely applied to a

great variety of subjects, and may include everything relating to the habits, manners and customs, traditions, songs, and tales of a people, in so far as it is of spontaneous growth. Hence religious beliefs, superstitions, popular remedies, &c., may all be classed under it, and it therefore touches on almost every subject that interests humanity. It was therefore impossible for Mr. Gomme to issue the great mass of material which he has been accumulating for many years to illustrate the Folk-lore of the British Isles, in a single alphabet. Not only would the time and expense required for this

• .1 Dictionary of British Yolk-lors. Edited by G. Laurence OrOMMO, Part L, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with Tune; Singing, Rhymes, and Methods of Playing, according to the Variants extant and recorded in different parts of toe Kingdom. Golleoted and arranged by Iliee Bertha Gomme. Vol. I., lanai:Ira—Nato ia May. Also Second Series, Wood- cuts. London : Darid Nutt. purpose have been an almost insuperable obstacle, but the result would be a huge encyclopmdia, in which students would be obliged to select the separate item which they specially required for themselves. Nor could the book be widely circulated, for many who required to consult it would only be interested in their own particular subjects, and conld hardly be expected to purchase so large and cumbrous a book, even supposing that they could well afford it. Consequently, Mr. and Mrs. Gomme finally determined to issue the work in sections, dealing with limited departments of folk-lore ; and the first of two volumes on games is now before us. The general scope and plan of the book may be indicated by extracts from Mrs. Gomme's preface:— " The games published in this collection bear the important qualification of being nearly all Children's Games ; that is to say, they were either originally children's games, since developed into games for adults, or they were the more serious avocations of adults, which have since become children's games only. In both cases the transition is due to traditional circumstances, and not to any formal arrangement. All invented games of skill are therefore excluded from this collection, but it includes both indoor and outdoor games, and those played by both girls and boys.

The games consist of two main divisions, which may be called descriptive, and singing or choral Children do not invent, but they imitate or mimic very largely, and in many of these games we have, there is little doubt, unconscious folk- dramas of events and customs which were at one time being enacted as a part of the serious concerns of life before the eyes of children many generations ago."

A few diagrams and illustrations are given, some of them taken from old MSS. It is not surprising that Mrs. Gomme has been obliged somewhat to limit her use of the materials at her disposal. According to her programme, well-known games of skill, such as chess and draughts, and even dominoes and backgammon, are excluded; but we are glad to see that less known games of a somewhat similar kind, such as "Nine Men's Morris" (an old game mentioned by Shakespeare), but rather too simple for modern taste, have been admitted. And we hope that the older names of even the excluded games, such as " tables " for "backgammon," will not be omitted without a passing note in the second volume. And although in many cases Mrs. Gomme has necessarily been forced to pick and choose amongst numerous variants, she has always given amply enough to satisfy the majority of her readers, an assort- ment that, in some cases, has assumed very extended limits. Thus, twenty-four pages are occupied with the widely popular singing-game of "Jenny Jones," including seventeen different versions with commentary. This section will serve to illus- trate Mrs. Gomme's treatment of her subject. It was one of the games played by children under the direction of Mrs. G-omme herself at the conversazione held at Merchants' Hall, Cheapside, on October 5th, 1891, on the occasion of the meeting of the International Folk-lore Congress in London. We will quote one of the shorter variants, and part of the general remarks on the game "IX. We've come to see Jenny Jones, Jenny Jones, We've come to see Jenny Jones. How is she now P 'Jenny is washing, washing, washing,

Jenny is washing, you can't see her now.'"

Then follow the alternate question and answer ; the questions in the same words as the first couplet, and the answers in the same form as the second couplet, stating that Jenny is (1) folding, (2) starching, (3) ironing, (4) ill, (5) dying, ((3) dead. Then the verses proceed with :—

"'May we come to the funeral ?' Yes.'

'May we come in red?'

• Red is for soldiers, you can't come in roil.' May we come in blue ? '

• Blue is for sailors, you can't come in blue.' May we come in white ? ' White is for weddings, you can't come in white.'

• May we come in black ?'

'Black is for funerals, so you can come in that.' Backing, Essex, (Folk-lore Record III., 471.)" "Two children stand apart, one, who personates the Mother, stands still, and holds out her skirts with both hands ; the other personates Jenny Jones, and kneels or stoops down in a crouching position, behind her companion's outstretched skirts. The other players form a line by joining hands. They sing the first, third, and every alternate verse, advancing and retiring in line while doing so. The Mother sings the answers to their questions, standing still, and hiding Jenny Jones all the time from view. When the verses are finished, Jenny Jones lies down as if she were dead, and the Mother stands aside. Two of the other players then take up Jenny Jones, one by the shoulders, and the other by the feet, and carry her a little distance off, where they lay her on the ground. All the players follow, generally two by

two, with their handkerchiefs at their eyes, and heads lowered, pretending to grieve."

In some of the versions Jenny Jones comes to life again, or rushes after the children as a ghost, and the one whom she catches becomes Jenny Jones in the next game. Games of a similar kind, describing various actions, which are carried out by the players, are commonly played in Kinder- gartens. A great number of games relate to courtship and marriage ; others, such as "Mother, Mother, the Pot Boils Over," contain curious references to mediasval witch-

craft. Games of marbles are not neglected ; nor games like "Magic Music," "Fire, Air, and Water," and others, still played at juvenile parties. Among the most interesting of the older games is "London Bridge," which Mrs. Gomme

reasonably supposes to date back to the actual historical event of the breaking down of London Bridge, in the reign of Ethelred II., by King Olaf. What is still more interesting, Mrs. Gomme recognises in the capture of a prisoner in the course of the games a possible reminiscence of the time when the stability of a building was supposed to be secured by human sacrifices. Perhaps the last remnant of this super- stition may be found in the practice of the buccaneers, who are said to have slaughtered a negro or prisoner when they buried their booty, that his spirit might watch over it.

There is a curious game called "Lubin," played with rhymes beginning :—

"Here we dance, lubin, lubin, lubin,

Here we dance lubin light;

Here we dance, lubin, lubin, lubin, On a Saturday night."

Of this there are many variants, " looby," " luby," " lewby," " Hinkumbooby," Sze., and also as to the day, Friday, Wednesday, Christmas, or New Year's night being some- times substituted. Mrs. Gomme remarks, "The liezhain version, 'Here we come looping (leaping ?),' may probably be

the oldest and original form, especially if the conjecture that this game is derived from animal rites is accepted. The

term looby," lubin,' or luby,' does not throw much light on the game. Addy (Sheffield Glossary) says, Looby is an old form of the modern "lubber," a "clumsy fellow," "a dolt."

If Mrs. Gomme is correct in " looping " being the form of the word in the original game, it is just possible that "Inbin " may be a corruption of some animal name, such as "lupus," or " lapin ; " but we are more inclined to suggest that " looping " is a modern gloss (like "Please the pigs," for "Please the pyx "), and that the game alludes not to an animal, or to leaping, but to the house-spirit, Milton's "lubber fiend."

Probably few people would have thought it possible that so large a book could have been written on so comparatively

limited a subject as the games of a single small country. A

yet more interesting book might be written on games in general, as played in ancient and modern times in various countries ; but before this can be done satisfactorily, the games of other countries must be collected as assiduously as Mr. and Mrs. Gomme have collected our own. There is no doubt that the publication of this book, which ought to be interesting and useful to the antiquarian, historian, and philologist, as well as the student of manners and customs, will lead to the collection of a large amount of additional information ; but it is likely long to remain the standard work on the subject of British Games.