Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/49

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Here’s a couple got married together, Father and mother they must agree; Love each other like sister and brother, I pray this couple to kiss together.

It is curious to discover that the village children of Devonshire find amusement in the same game. I transcribe the words sung at the school-feast of Chudleigh Knighton in that county, A.D. 1878, when “Sally Walker” seemed very popular. The first line is remarkable as apparently referring to some form of incantation

The following verses which accompany another game were communicated to me by Mr. Joseph Crawhall, but I well remember singing them with my young companions in my childhood. They are said to have been very popular on the Borders.

Schools, too, have their superstitions and their legendary rites. One odd school-boy notion is that if the master’s cane is nicked at the upper end, and a hair inserted, it will on its first use split to the very tip. In my own day, and perhaps at the present