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BUFF |
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BufF neither laughs nor smiles, But strokes his face With a very good grace, And delivers his staff to you.
—Cheltenham (Miss E. Mendham).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs
as follows:—
Buff neither laughs nor smiles,
But strokes his face for want of grace, And sticks his staff in the right place.
—London (J. P. Emslie).
(b) Five or six children stand in a row. Another child comes up to the first of the row, and strikes smartly on the ground with a stick. The child facing him asks the first question, and the one with the stick answers. At " strokes his face " he suits the action to the words, and then thumps with his stick on the ground at the beginning of the last line. The object of all the players is to make Buff smile while going through this absurdity, and if he does he must pay a forfeit.
Another version is for one child to be blindfolded, and stand in the middle of a ring of children, holding a long wand in his hand. The ring dance round to a tune and sing a chorus [which is not given by the writer]. They then stop. BufF extends his wand, and the person to whom it happens to be pointed must step out of the circle to hold the end in his hand. BufF then interrogates the holder of the wand by grunting three times, and is answered in like manner. BufF then guesses who is the holder oF the wand. IF he guesses rightly, the holder oF the stick becomes BufF, and he joins the ring ( Winter Evening"'s Amusements, p. 6). When I played at this game the ring oF children walked in silence three times only round BufF, then stopped and knelt or stooped down on the ground, strict silence being observed. BufF asked three questions (anything he chose) oF the child to whom he pointed the stick, who replied by imitating cries oF animals or birds (A. B. Gomme).
(c) This is a well-known game. It is also called "BufFy GrufFy," or " Indian Buff." The Dorsetshire version in Folklore Journal, vi. 238, 239, is the same as the Shropshire version.
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