Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/264

240 party, one of whom says as follows: “Here’s a poor old sailor just come from sea, pray what have you got to give him?” Whoever is called upon to answer the question must be careful not to mention the word “red,” “white,” “blue,” or “black,” or even sometimes give the name of any colour at all, and must not say “yes” or “no,” in default of which he or she will have to pay a forfeit. The questioner then passes on to the next one, and says, “Here’s a poor old sailor just come from sea, pray what have you got to give him?” The one questioned must be careful only to answer, “Nothing at all.” The other replies, “Nothing at all!” and with an insinuating attempt to obtain an answer that will subject the speaker to a forfeit will add, “Not a red coat?” or “Not a blue hat”? On the person interrogated persisting in replying, “Nothing at all,” the other moves on, in the hope of getting a more favourable response out of another player, and so on until the questioner has gone all round. After this has been done, any forfeits that may have been obtained have to be redeemed by those persons who have been so unfortunate as to incur them.

Another form of playing forfeits was called “Yes, No, Black and White;” these being the four words that must not be mentioned in the answer. In this game any kind of question was permitted.

The redemption of the forfeits takes place in the following way. Two persons, as before, remain in front of the others, the one sitting in a chair facing the party, the other kneeling down and laying his or her head in the lap of the other, with the face downwards. The person sitting in the chair will hold the forfeited article that is about to be redeemed over the bent head of the person kneeling in front of her, and will say as follows: “Here’s a thing, and a very pretty thing! What must the owner of this pretty thing do to redeem it again?” or, “What must the owner do to receive it again?” Whatever the person who has his or her head in the other’s lap (and who of course cannot see what or whose is the article held up) says, the owner of that article must do, or the forfeit cannot be redeemed, let it never be so much prized. The penalties of redemption sometimes oblige the ordeal of crawling up the chimney, or at least attempting to do so; or giving a sweetheart’s name; or she or he