Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/273

 Rh in Trinity College, Dublin, and when the game was quite unknown in a great part of Ireland. At the same time, they may have been introduced by some of the earlier settlers, and afterwards degenerated into the games mentioned above; but I would be inclined to suspect that the Irish are the primitive games, they having since been improved into cricket. At the present day these games nearly everywhere are succeeded by cricket, but often of a very primitive form, the wickets being stones set on end, or a pillar of stones; while the ball is often wooden, and very rudely formed.

An old game called Crooky was formerly played at Portarlington, Queen's co. and Kilkee, co. Clare. Fifty years ago it was played with wooden crooks and balls, but about twenty-five years ago, or a little more, mallets were introduced at Kilkee; while subsequently the name was changed to croquet. I have heard it stated that this game was introduced by the French refugees that settled at Port-arlington.

Another old Irish game was Duck-stone. A number of stones, one less than the number of players, were placed close together in a row; one player was told off to guard the stones on which smaller stones were placed. All of the players, except the guard, stood in a place about twelve or fifteen feet from the row of stones, and with their duck (stones) tried to knock off the smaller stones, which the guard had to replace as fast as possible, because if any of the small stones were off the duck-holders could carry in their ducks; but if all the stones were on, if one of the duck-holders tried to carry in his duck and he was tipped by the guard, he had to take the guard's place, who joined the duck-holders.

Hurl was a very ancient Irish game, as we have many places called after it: such as, Killahurla, the hurlers' church; Gortnahurla, the field of the hurlers; Greenanahurla, the sunny place of the hurlers; this, however, is now generally corrupted into hurling-green. The hurling-green where the famous match was played by the people of Wexford against those of Cather (now divided into the counties of Carlow and Wicklow), and where the former got the name of yellow bellies from the colour of the scarfs they wore round their waist, is a sunny flat on the western side of North Wicklow Gap, on the road