Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/394

 344 Collectanea.

leader, striking her left knee with her open left hand. The query and answer goes round the circle, the striking of the knee never ceasing from the lime each commences. When it reaches the leader again the same process is commenced with the same query and answer, but it is now the right knee which is struck, the strik- ing of the left knee never ceasing. In the next round the leader may commence by shaking her head, rocking her body, coughing, or any other motion which she thinks of. All being under the observation of their neighbours, a mistake is at once detected, and the player stands aside. Success is with the one that holds out longest.

The wee Melo-o-dy Man

Is a Jura sample of a hke game, each of the players being sup- posed to have a musical instrument of their own. Starting as in " Aunt Dinah's dead," the leader commences imitating a player on the melodeon, the others commencing with him as if playing their own instrument, the whole party singing in unison —

"I'm the wee melo-o-dy man, I'm the wee melo-o-dy man, I do all that ever I can To follow the wee melo-o-dy man.''

The leader, however, suddenly begins to imitate the instrument of another of the players, and the one whose instrument has been appropriated must at once commence to imitate the melodeon. Supposing the leader's second instrument to be the drum, the moment he ceases to imitate drumming, the original player resumes his own instrument, and the one whose instrument, say the fiddle, has been adopted by the leader must then commence to play the melodeon. Want of promptness, becoming confused as to your instrument, forgetting to join in the singing, which con- tinues all the while except when some of the players are declared to be " out," causes the maker of the mistake to stand aside, the longest " in " winning.

Statues

Is a like game. The leader in this case stands in the centre of the circle at first, but commences to run round and round inside it till the others call to her to stop. Instantly on the word, she stands,