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DUMPS—ELLER TREE |
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Here's one hammer on the block, My men, my men ;
There's one hammer, &c, my man John. Dibble the can, blow bellows, blow, Fire away, lads, for an hour or so. See " Dish-a-loof," " Sacks."
Dumps
A game at marbles or taw, played with holes scooped in the ground (Roxburgh, Jamieson). Grose gives dump as signifying 11 a deep hole of water " (Provincial Glossary).
Dust-point
A game in which boys placed their points in a heap, and threw at them with a stone. Weber and Nares give wrong explanations. It is alluded to in Cotton's Works, 1734, p. 184. I'll venter on their heads my brindled cow, With any boy at dust-point they shall play.
—Peacham's Thalia's Banquet', 1620.
Nares (Glossary) suggests that this game and blow-point resembled the game of Push-pin. See also Halliwell's Dictionary.
Eller Tree
A number of young men and women stand in a line, a tall girl at one end of the line representing the tree. They then begin to wrap round her, saying, "The old eller tree grows thicker and thicker." When they have all got round her (the tree), they jump all together, calling out, "A bunch of rags, a bunch of rags," and try to tread on each other's toes.— Sheffield, Yorks (S. O. Addy).
(b) The tree is the alder. It abounds in the North of England more than in any other part of the kingdom, and seems always to have been there held in great respect and veneration. Many superstitions also attach to the tree. It is possible from these circumstances that the game descends from an old custom of encircling the tree as an act of worship, and the allusion to the " rags " bears at least a curious relationship to tree worship. |
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