Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/252

228 The mother then leaves her child, and says:

This is repeated until all are similarly disposed of. A few days are supposed to pass, after which the mother calls to see her children, when the lady tells her she cannot see them. At last she insists upon seeing them, and the children are all “sat down” behind the lady, and the mother asks one child what the lady has done to her; and she tells her “that the lady has cut off her nose, and made a nose-pie and never give her a bit of it.” Each one says she has done something to her and made a pie, and when all have told their tale “they all turn on her and put her to prison.”

(xi.)—The following variant was contributed by Miss M. G. A. Summers, of Hazelbury Bryan, to the Dorset County Chronicle (April, 1889), to whom I am also indebted for the next two games.

One child takes seven or eight others whom she pretends are her children. Another child, presumably a mistress in want of servants, stands at a distance. The first child advances, holding the hand of her children, saying:

The supposed mistress answers:

The mother before retiring says: