| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
CHANCE BONE—CHANGE SEATS 65
Chance Bone
In Langley's abridgment of Polydore Vergiley f. 1., we have a description of this game: " There is a game also that is played with the posterne bone in the hinder foote of a sheepe, oxe, gote, fallow, or redde dere, whiche in Latin is called talus. It hath foure chaunces : the ace point, that is named Canis, or Canicula, was one of the sides; he that cast it leyed doune a peny, or so muche as the gamers were agreed on ; the other side was called Venus, that signifieth seven. He that cast the chaunce wan sixe and all that was layd doune for the castyng of Canis. The two other sides were called Chius and Senio. He that did throwe Chius wan three. And he that cast Senio gained four. This game (as I take it) is used of children in Northfolke, and they cal it the Chaunce Bone; the)r playe with three or foure of those bones together; it is either the same or very lyke to it."
See " Dibs," " Hucklebones."
Change Seats, the King's Come
In this game as many seats are placed round a room as will serve all the company save one. The want of a seat falls on an individual by a kind of lot, regulated, as in many other games, by the repetition of an old rhythm. All the rest being seated, he who has no seat stands in the middle, repeating the words " Change seats, change seats," &c, while all the rest are on the alert to observe when he adds, '* the king's come," or, as it is sometimes expressed, change their seats. The sport lies in the bustle in consequence of every one's endeavouring to avoid the misfortune of being the unhappy individual who is left without a seat. The principal actor often slily says, " The king's not come," when, of course the company ought to keep their seats; but from their anxious expectation of the usual summons, they generally start up, which affords a great deal of merriment.—Brand's Pop. Antiq., ii. 409.
(b) Dr. Jamieson says this is a game well-known in Lothian
and in the South of Scotland. Sir Walter Scott, in Rob Roy,
iii. 153, says, " Here auld ordering and counter-ordering—but
patience! patience!—We may ae day play at Change seats; the
king's coming."
VOL. I. E |
||
|
|
||