Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/231

 Collectanea. 2 1 7

(P. 229, after line 3.)

In some places the rapidity with which the rope is moved is classified in four degrees as "Tea," "Sugar," "Salt," "Pepper," counting from the slower to the faster. The distance of the rope from the ground is also distinguished. " Low Water " is the rope sweeping the ground ; " High Water " is when it is as far from the ground as the performer can clear. This test commences with "Low Water" and the rope tightened till " High Water " is reached.

(P. 228, after line 9.)

This is varied sometimes. The skipper ' herself repeats the letters of the alphabet, moving up and down before the oiher players, who stand in line until she reaches the initial letter of the name of one of them, when skipping in front of her, say Mary, she throws the rope over Mary's head, who, grasping the upper part of the skipper's skirt, or some suitable point, both being within the sweep of the rope, they continue the skipping together.

STRENGTH TESTS.

(P. 231. Introductory to "Strength Tests.")

In the mouths of the people, we must admit it, there is a strong tendency to exaggeration. The following is simply an impossibility but was told as a fact. There was a nice boy, a student, who used to go to a gentleman's house to dinner along with other students. He was a Highlander. Now there was an Englishman invited to those dinner parties, who for a trick, when shaking hands with the Highlander, used to squeeze him so hard that the blood would spurt out at the ends of the boy's fingers. The boy had an uncle, a very strong man, and next time he got an invitation to one of those dinner parties, this uncle accompanied the lad, and they arranged that, when drinking each other's healths, when it was the particular English- man who was drinking, the Highland student was to touch his uncle's foot so that he might make no mistake. Our student and the Englishman were taking a glass together, and the