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HEADS AND TAILS—HECKLEBIRNIE |
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players was two. The stakes were pins. One player laid in the hollow of the hand, or on one of the forefingers, a pin, and then placed the other forefinger over it so as to conceal it. He then held up his hand to his opponent and said, " Headicks or pinticks ? " His opponent made a guess by pointing with his finger and saying " Headicks," or " Pinticks." If the guess was correct he gained the pin, but if it was incorrect he forfeited one. The players played alternately.—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
Another version seems to be " Headim and Corsim." Pins are hid with fingers in the palms of the hands; the same number is laid alongside them, and either " Headim " or " Corsim " called out by those who do so. When the fingers are lifted, if the heads of the pins hid and those beside them be lying one way when the crier cried " Headim," then that player wins; but if " Corsim," the one who hid the pins wins. This is the king of all the games at the preens.—Mactaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopedia.
The editors of Jamieson's Dictionary say that the name should be " Headum and Corsum."
Heads and Tails
That plan for deciding matters by the " birl o' a bawbee." The one side cries " Heads " (when the piece is whirling in the air) and the other " Tails," so whichever is uppermost when the piece alights that gains or settles the matter, heads standing for the King's head and tails for the figure who represents Britannia.—Mactaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopedia. This is a general form of determining sides or beginning a game all over the country.
Hecklebirnie
A play among children in Aberdeenshire. Thirty or forty children in two rows, joining opposite hands, strike smartly with their hands thus joined on the head or shoulders of their companion as he runs the gauntlet through them. This is called "passing through the mires of Hecklebirnie."—Jamieson.
The editors of Jamieson append a lengthy note connecting |
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