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JACK'S ALIVE. |
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parlour. A lighted wooden spill or taper is handed to the first, who says—
Jack's alive, and likely to live; If he dies in your hand you've a forfeit to give. The one in whose hand the light expires has to pay a forfeit. As the spill is getting burnt out the lines are said very quickly, as everybody is anxious not to have to pay the forfeit.—Addy's Sheffield Glossary.
At Egan, in Derbyshire, a number of persons sit round a fire; one of them lights a stick, twirls it round, and says— Little Nanny Cockerthaw, What if I should let her fa' ?
The others reply—
Nine sticks and nine stones
Shall be laid on thy bare back bones
If thou shouldst let fa'
Little Nanny Cockerthaw. If the ember or lighted stick goes out whilst any one is twirling it round, and whilst the lines are being said, he has to lie on the floor, when stones, chairs, or other articles of furniture are piled upon him.—S. O. Addy.
Mactaggart calls it " Preest Cat," and says that it is an ingieside game. A piece of stick is made red in the fire; one hands it to another, saying—
About wi' that, about wi' that,
Keep alive the preest cat. Then round is handed the stick, and whomsoever's hand it goes out in, that one is in a wad, and must kiss the crook, the cleps, and what not, ere he gets out of it.
Lilly cuckoo, lilly cuckoo,
Sticks and stanes lie at thy weary banes
If thou fa', for a' I blaw,
Lilly cuckoo, lilly cuckoo. This rhyme is common in the " Preest Cat" sport toward the border. Anciently, when the priest's cat departed this life, wailing began in the country side, as it was thought it became some supernatural being—a witch, perhaps, of hideous form— VOL. I. R |
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