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COCK |
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The boys give the name of Victor-nut to the fruit of the common hazel, and play it to the words: " Cockhaw! First blaw! Up hat! Down cap ! Victor! " The nut that cracks another is called a Cock-battler (Folk-lore Journal, v. 61). Halliwell describes this game differently. He says "it consists in pitching at a row of nuts piled up in heaps of four, three at the bottom and one at the top of each heap. The nut used for the pitching is called the Cob. All the nuts knocked down are the property of the pitcher." Alluding to the first described form, he says it "is probably a more modern game," and quotes Cotgrave sub voce " Chastelet" as authority for the earlier form in the way he describes it (Dictionary). Addy says the nuts were hardened for the purpose. When a nut was broken it was said to be "cobbered" or "cobbled" (Sheffield Glossary). Evans' Leicestershire Glossary also describes it. Darlington (South Cheshire Words) says this game only differs from " Cobblety-cuts" in the use of small nuts instead of chestnuts. George Eliot in Adam Bede has, " Gathering the large unripe nuts to play at ' Cob-nut' with " (p. 30). Britton's Beauties of Wiltshire gives the Isle of Wight and Hants as other places where the game is known. See "Conquerors."
Cock
One boy is chosen Cock. The players arrange themselves in a line along one side of the playground. The Cock takes his stand in front of the players. When everything is ready, a rush across the playground is made by the players. The Cock tries to catch and " croon "—i.e., put his hand upon the head of—as many of the players as he can when running from one side of the playground to the other. Those caught help the Cock in the rush back. The rush from side to side goes on till all are captured. To " croon " was the essential point in capturing. When a boy was being pursued to be taken prisoner, his great object was, when he came to close quarters with his pursuers, to save his head from being touched on the crown by one of them.—Nairn (Rev. W. Gregor).
At Duthil, Strathspey, this game goes by the name of |
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