Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/117

 Collectanea. 105

behind the other, with their legs wide apart, each armed with his bonnet. Through this avenue, the losers had to creep one after the other, being firmly " clouted " as they passed through.

The Bonnet Battle.

The Kilmarnock (knitted) bonnet was a useful weapon of the knotted handkerchief type, perhaps less painful, as not being provided with a peak, but it could be made heavier. An old Campbeltonian describes its use in single combat. Where one fought against one with his bonnet they struck with their bonnets in one hand and parried blows with the other; but one might engage to fight two, in which case the single fighter might have a bonnet in each hand as an offensive weapon, while his opponents were limited to one each. It

was a case of

" Lay on, Macduff; And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough.'"

The reciter remarked that, though such combats were by no means rare, he could only remember a single occasion in which the "fun" was like to end in "earnest," and when the bonnets had been thoroughly soaked in water swollen faces and partially closed eyes were frequent results.

Other bonnet games were Bonnety Kick. Through the Mill.

One boy stands with his legs well apart and his bonnet on the ground between them. The others prance round, endeavour- ing to seize his bonnet without being tigged. The tigger must not move his feet ; if he tigs another they change places. If one has captured the bonnet without being tigged, he kicks it to a companion, and it is so kicked about among the players till the owner succeeds in tigging one of them while the bonnet is with him, in which case they change places and the game commences anew.

Another "Bonnety."

The game started with a boy being blindfolded and standing with his legs well apart. The other players from behind him