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CAT-BEDS—CAT'S CRADLE 61 |
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Cat-Beds
The name of a game played by young people in Perthshire. In this game, one, unobserved by all the rest, cuts with a knife the turf in very unequal angles. These are all covered, and each player puts his hand on what he supposes to be the smallest, as every one has to cut off the whole surface of his division. The rate of cutting is regulated by a throw of the knife, and the person who throws is obliged to cut as deep as the knife goes. He who is last in getting his bed cut up is bound to carry the whole of the clods, crawling on his hands and feet, to a certain distance measured by the one next to him, who throws the knife through his legs. If the bearer of the clods let any of them fall, the rest have a right to pelt him with them. They frequently lay them very loosely on, that they may have the pleasure of pelting.—Jamieson.
Cat's Cradle
One child holds a piece of string joined at the ends on his upheld palms, a single turn being taken over each, and by inserting the middle finger of each hand under the opposite turn, crosses the string from finger to finger in a peculiar form. Another child then takes off the string on his fingers in a rather different way, and it then assumes a second form. A repetition of this manoeuvre produces a third form, and so on. Each of these forms has a particular name, from a fancied resemblance to the object—barn-doors, bowling-green, hourglass, pound, net, fiddle, fish-pond, diamonds, and others.— Notes and Queries, vol. xi. p. 421.
The following forms are those known to me, with their names. They are produced seriatim.
1. The cradle.
2. The soldier's bed.
3. Candles.
4. The cradle inversed, or manger.
5. Soldier's bed again, or diamonds.
6. Diamonds, or cat's eyes.
7. Fish in dish.
8. Cradle as at first. |
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