THE MORRIS BOOK, Online Version

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	DIAGRAM OF STICK-TAPPING.
	This double-tapping looks complicated, both in dance and diagram, but is really very simple. A few hints upon the most difficult bar, the fourth, will explain the whole. In this, on beat 1, No. 1, to tap with his butt the top of No. 2's stick, raises the wrist and hand till the stick is above and at right-angles to No. 2's, then thrusts outward till his butt strikes No. 2's top. On beat 2, No. 1 lowers his hand, keeping the stick perpendicular, moves hand to right and taps his top on No. 2's butt. Beat 3 is as beat 1; on beat 4, No. 1 simply lowers hand and taps No. 2 on his right, or top end. This explains all the taps that occur. For the method, which is invariable, except where specially stated, of holding the stick (see p. 60). In the second four bars of "B," double-tapping and steps are repeated precisely as in first four bars; and throughout the dance it is the same to "B" music, four bars of double-tapping, repeated, up to the call "All in."
	BLUFF KING HAL. In this the step is 4/3 throughout. It should be danced something after the fashion of "Morris-Off," but not quite so soberly; yet the step is less vigorous than the normal Morris step. Like "Morris-Off" it has, what with its length and staid monotony, a quaintness all its own. To teach and to learn the right way of dancing "Bluff King Hal" is more a matter of drill and precision than lusty abandon: it must be danced evenly, seriously almost, and quite quietly, or its true effect will be marred or lost. The music is marked ad libitum: the musician simply brings his labours to an end in whichsoever section he shall hear the warning call of "All in." Even the Morris-men themselves do not invariably go through all the movements. These instructions are given in order that, should audience or dancers weary of the exercise, it can be curtailed. Where we have taught the dance to novices, we have found, at first, curtailment to be advisable, for the length and monotony of it palled. Later, however, when the learners had mastered its curious intricacies, we found no weariness amongst them, but a constant demand for every single movement to be performed in its traditional completeness, and over and over again, as long as we chose to play it. We shall therefore describe it here at length, and leave it to the tact and discretion of the teacher where and when and to what extent it shall upon occasion be abbreviated. The files should stand as in Corner Dances—about twelve feet apart.