Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/413

 Collectanea. 381

the one is sacrifice, the other magic. The explanation is sug- gested by the children's game "Tiggy, Tiggy, Touch Wood," where the child stands forward daringly and recites the couplet:

"Tii^gy, tiggy, touch wood, I've got no wood." Or,

"Ticky, ticky Touch wood, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen : Sometimes nine and sometimes ten, Ticky, ticky Touch wood, my black hen.'" '

and when pursued flies to the protection of the nearest tree, or in towns, where a tree is not available, a railing or a piece of furni- ture will serve : but it must be of wood. This game takes us back to the time when Northern Europe was forest land, and man a most defenceless animal. Long after he may have ceased to live in trees, and probably, though in a less degree, in the earlier pastoral stage, the natural impulse was to fly for refuge to a tree, which few beasts of prey can climb. The dangers of the forest beset us no more, but we still retain some vague idea that evil will result from boasting, and we give the same old warning whose value our ancestors recognised so well : " Touch wood ! " ^

\V. H. F. Basevi.

A Key for a Coffin.

An old Irishman, a Roman Catholic, was buried here a few days ago. His neighbours say that when he knew himself to be

^ Lady Gomme, Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, vol. ii., p. 292 f.

-Mr. J. Nicholson (Sixth Series, Noles and Qtiei-ies, vol. x., p. 266) states that the game " Tiggy, Tiggy, Touch Wood " comes down from the time when northern England was divided into wapentakes. When a new chief magistrate of this area was appointed all the freemen had to assemble. His spear was fixed upright in the ground, and all present had to " tig," or touch, its ashen handle with their spears, as a token of allegiance to him. He who came not to "tig" was an enemy, and could be pursued and punished; but he who touched was considered exempt. The boy who has touched calls out " Kings" as a form of exemption, which probably points to the fact that the king's thanes could procure exemption by stating their office, and without touching the spear. — Editor.