Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/67

Rh and round, whilst the others take it in turn to try and jump on their backs; those who succeed are all right, but those who do not have to receive a cut on their backs from a rope which, a boy deputed to the office, holds in his hands.

Finally we have the, or game of ball, so closely resembling our game of cricket in many of its points that my curiosity was excited. Was it only a base imitation of our noble game, or was ours but an improvement on it? It is played in this wise: there are five usually on each side; there is a stone for a wicket, but instead of a bat only the hand is used; the ball is simply thrown at the stone by the bowler, and if the player hits the ball to a certain distance he counts one, but there is no running; if the stone is hit or the ball is caught his innings is over. Old men I asked said they had known played in exactly the same way when they were young, and had heard their fathers make the same remark. In short, they were indignant at the very notion of its being a game borrowed from elsewhere, and claimed for it the greatest antiquity.

Nursery Rhymes and Proverbs.—From Aberdeen and its Folk, published Aberdeen, 1868, I extract the following nursery rhymes which are not in Mr. Gregor's Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland:

There are also given some Scotch proverbs, some of them peculiar to the granite city or the district around.

"Saut! quo' the Sutor, when he ate the coo and worried on the tail."

"When your head's fite (white), ye wad hae 't curlin." This refers to the custom of wearing powder, and is intended as a reproof of unreasonable expectations.

"Ye've neither been biggin' kirks nor placin' ministers." You have been engaged in some questionable occupation.