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HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON |
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Open the gates as wide as the sky, And let King George and his lady go by.
—Market Drayton, Ellesmere, Whitchurch, (Burne's Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 522).
XVI. How many miles to Bethlehem ? Three score and ten. Shall we get there by candle-light ? Yes, there and back again.
So open the gates and let King George and his family go through. —Hayton, near York (H. Hardy).
XVII. How far is it to Babylon ? Three score miles and ten. Can I get there by candle-light ? Yes, there and back again.
—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
XVIII. How many miles to Babylon ? Three score and ten. Can you get there by candle-light ? O yes, and back again.
—Hanbury, Staffordshire (Miss E. Hollis).
XIX. Open the gates as wide as high,
And let King George and I go by;
It is so dark I cannot see
To thread my grandmother's needle.
—Surrey (Folk-lore Record, v. 88).
(J?) There are two methods of playing this game, one in which a King and Queen are represented, and the other in which gates of a city are represented. Of the first Chambers and Mactaggart practically give the same account. The latter says, " Two of the swiftest boys are placed between two ' doons ' or places of safety; these, perhaps, are two hundred yards distant. All the other boys stand in one of these places or doons, when the two fleet youths come forward and address them with the rhyme. When out, they run in hopes to get to Babylon or the other doon, but many get not near that place before they are caught by the runners, who ' taens' them, that |
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