Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/266

242 This is continued through the following rounds:

Each person, in turn, has to repeat this jingle, gradually increasing in length, going backwards through the list, a new character being introduced each round; so that by the time the last lines have been reached, some one’s memory is sure to become confused and a mistake be made in the repetition, for which, amidst general laughter, a forfeit is claimed.

Another form the game would sometimes take was that of a “word puzzle,” when an outlandish single word, or curiously involved sentence, had to be repeated so many times (seven or nine was the usual number) without a mistake, on failure of which a forfeit was exacted.

The following is a specimen of such a word:

And this of a sentence: