Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/239

 Collectanea. 225

brooch," "golden apple," — and the leader herself is named cor- respondingly by the last in the line, and then takes her place beside the others. In front of the party so drawn up stands " Ruggy Dug," a girl chosen for the post. To her the leader says, " Come choose me out, come choose me out, come choose me out. Golden Brooch." Ruggy Dug touches the head of the one she guesses. If the guess is right. Golden Brooch may at once start to reach the other goal, Ruggy Dug's business being to tig her before she reaches it, or she may remain impassive, waiting for a better opportunity. The guesser, supposing herself possibly to be wrong, touches another, knowing however that her first guess may have been right and that Golden Brooch may start at any moment. If Ruggy Dug catches a runner they change places. If the leader sees that those already touched are safe at the other goal, she repeats her question with another name. Ruggy 's only chance of relief is tigging one of the other players running between the goals.

(P. 244, after line 9.) The Girr.

The Scotch word for a hoop is the word applied by the folk to the hoop trundled with a stick. The hoop itself is generally that of a barrel of some sort, so long as it is sufficiently stout to stand being struck.

(P- 245-)

Bodacli Beag Bideach. (Little Insignificant Old Man.)

This game, played in the island of Barra, reminds one more of the story of the man who, having prayed to his saint's image, treating it all the while with the utmost consideration, for suitable weather, finding no satisfactory result, knocked its head off, sold it to a collector of curiosities, and remarked, " He had no use for a god of that sort."

A party of young children put a stick of about the length of a walking-stick upright in the ground. This represents the ' little insignificant old man.' Some rags are tied round the end of the stick, these represent the head and face. A little lower down another rag represents his shirt, below that another stands for his

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