Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/236

 2 22 Collectanea.

other's hands, do their best to drag one another over it, the vanquished one remaining a prisoner. The same process is now repeated, and another couple pitted one against the other. The party that has pulled the greater number over the line gain the game.

Weigh Butter, Big Cheese. (Note the pronunciation of the word "weigh" is as if it were " wee" = small.) Two girls stand back to back, then hook their arms at the elbow, and, by bending alternately, raise one another off the ground, humming the while : '• Weigh butter, big cheese," as each is lifted off the ground, two words to each lift. In Uist they use the following Gaelic during the same process : " Im's cais, / 's buntat 's sgadain " (butter and cheese / and potato and herrings).

(P. 239 in continuance of line 16.)

Nearly the same game is called Bull in the Park.

As described, the only difference is that one of those who have permitted their hands to be separated takes the place of the ' bull,' the one in the centre of the ring, without any chasing.

THROWING GAMES.

(P. 241, after "Duck.")

The skipping a flat stone over water is called in Gaelic, on the authority of Armstrong's Dictionary, " Losg-bhra-teine," seemingly comparing the effect to sparks caused by rapidly turning a quern.

(P. 241, after line 30.)

The same game as described above was played in Perthshire under the name of "War."

With some variations, it appears as Table the Juck (Duck), the name applied to it in Cowal. About Lochgilphead this is shortened into " Juckie," and in Lorn it is called " Hammer the Block."