Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/395

 Collectanea. 345

throwing herself into any posture she thinks fit, the other players at once assuming the same. The leader then goes through a series of the most grotesque statuesque attitudes she can originate, the others following. No one is allowed to laugh, the first show- ing her teeth has to go into the centre and act as leader, the leader taking her place.

INCORRECT SPEAKING.

(P. 141, at the bottom.)

In the process of the deterioration of a language, Gaelic in this case, the sound is apt to convey its more usual meaning rather than the one which is becoming obsolete. The following sent from Uist is an example of this. "What English would you give for ' Is buidh dhuitsa, dol a phosadh aig deireadh na bliandhna'?" Buaidh (victory, something conducing to a person's advantage) is with difficulty distinguished in common speech from buidhe meaning ' yellow/ and it would appear that generally speaking the answer to the inquiry above is " It is yellow to you to be going to marry at the end of the year."

KNIFE GAMES.

A knife game played with a stick sounds peculiar, but it seems, looking to the headings which have been adopted, the most appropriate under which to include

Stickle Stick.

This is a boys' game, the stick used corresponding in appear- ance as nearly as possible to a roughly made cricket wicket. A soft piece of ground is chosen, and the first player holds his stick to his nose, hanging perpendicularly point downwards. He lets it drop; if it sticks he leaves it there. The next player, having in view to tumble the first player's stick over and leave his own in its place, goes about it in the same way. If number two succeeds in his endeavour, holding his stick to his nose as before, he tries to drop it three times, each time sticking in the ground, touching the upset stick of the first player. If successful he lifts and holds in one hand the first player's stick, and with his own