Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/184

 gowsH muim' [ANY old games worth recording are still played by Cornish children, out of doors in summer, indoors in winter, and at their numerous school-treats. To those common elsewhere, other names in Corn- wall are often given, and different words sung. Some well known thirty-five years ago, now (1890) live only in the memory of those who were children then, or linger in a very fragmentary state in some remote country districts. Such as " Here come three dukes a-riding." To play this the children were divided into two parties. In the first were only the three dukes ; in the second the other players, who stood in a long line, linked hand in hand, facing them, — the mother in the middle, with her daughters ranged according to size on each side of her. One duke was chosen as spokesman, and he began the following dialogue, which was sung ; the party singing advanced and retreated, whilst the others stood still : — " Here ' comes ' three dukes a-riding, a-riding — Here ' comes ' three dukes a-riding, to court your daughter Jane." " My daughter Jane is yet too young To bear your silly, flattering tongue. " " Be she young or be she old, She for her beauty must and shall be sold."