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298 KIBEL AND NERSPEL
u kappan," Teut., u to catch or capture;" for when the game was played at by several, the ball was thrown into, the air and " kepped," or intercepted, in its descent by one or other of the girls, and it was then thrown up again to be caught by some other. But when the song was sung it was played out by one girl, who sent the ball against a tree and drove it back again as often as she could, saying the following rhymes, in order to divine her matrimonial future :—
Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree,
Come down the long loanin' and tell to me,
The form and the features, the speech and degree
Of the man that is my true love to be.
Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin* and tell to me How many years old I am to be.
One a maiden, two a wife, Three a maiden, four a wife, &c.
The numbers being continued as long as the ball could be kept rebounding against the tree.
The following from Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, p. 298, is also used for ball divination. To " cook " is to toss or throw.
Cook a ball, cherry tree;
Good ball, tell me
How many years I shall be
Before my true love I do see ?
One and two, and that makes three;
Thankee, good ball, for telling of me. See " Ball," " Cuckoo," " Monday."
Kibel and Nerspel
This game was played at Stixwold seventy years ago. It resembled " Trap, Bat, and Ball." Kibel = bat, ncr = ball of maplewood, spel = trap, with a limock (pliant) stick fastened to it. The score was made by hitting the ner a certain distance, but not by the striker running, as in " Rounders."—Miss M. Peacock.
See " Nur and Spell." |
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