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GHOST AT THE WELT |
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Ghost at the Well
One of the party is chosen for Ghost (if dressed in white so much the better); she hides in a corner; the other children are a mother and daughters. The eldest daughter says:—
"Mother, mother, please give me a piece of bread and butter."
M. " Let me (or ' leave me') look at your hands, child. Why, they are very dirty."
E. D. " I will go to the well and wash them."
She goes to the corner, the Ghost peeps up, and she rushes back, crying out—
" Mother! mother! I have seen a Ghost."
M. u Nonsense, child ! it was only your father's nightshirt I have washed and hung out to dry. Go again."
The child goes, and the same thing happens. She returns, saying—
"Yes! mother! I have seen a ghost."
M. " Nonsense, child! we will take a candle, and all go together to search for it."
The mother picks up a twig for a candle, and they set off. When they come near to the Ghost, she appears from her hiding-place, mother and children rush away in different directions, the Ghost chases them until she has caught one, who in her turn becomes Ghost.—West Cornwall (Miss Courtney, Folk-lore Journal, v. 55).
This game was " Ghost in the Copper " in London. It was played in the same way as above. Chairs formed the copper, and the ghost crouched down behind. The "Mother" was " washing " at a tub, also formed with two chairs. The eldest daughter was told she could not go to school to-day; she must stop at home and help hang up the clothes. The other children go to play. The Mother said, "Here, Jane, take this (pretending to give her a garment out of the wash-tub) and put it in the copper, and push it down well wTith the stick." Jane goes to the copper and pretends to take off the lid. When she puts the washed garment in, and pokes down with the stick, the Ghost jumps up. She cries out as above, the Mother saying, "Nonsense, child ! it's only some of the boiling clothes." |
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