| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
NEIVEIE-NICK-NACK |
||
|
Dickinson's Cumberland Glossary describes this as a boyish mode of casting lots. The boy says—
Neevy, neevy-nack, Whether hand will ta tack, T' topmer or t' lowmer ? Mr. W. H. Patterson (Antrim and Down Glossary) gives the rhyme as— Nievy, navy, nick nack,
Which han' will ye tak', The right or the wrang ? I'll beguile ye if I can. Chambers (Popular Rhymes) p. 117) gives the rhyme the same as that given by Mr. Patterson. In Notes and Queries, 6th Series, vii. 235, a North Yorkshire version is given as— Nievie, nievie,, nack, Whether hand wilta tak, Under or aboon, For a singal half-crown ? Nievie, nievie, nick, nack, Whilk han' will thou tak ? Tak the richt or tak the wrang, I'll beguile thee if I can. Jamieson (Supp., sub voce) adds^ "The first part of the word seems to be from neive, the fist being employed in the game.''' A writer in Notes and Queries, iii. 180, says: "The neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is held out to him who is to guess—the conjuror—and it is he who is addressed, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide conjecture, it may be) he is invoked in the person of Nic Neville (Neivi Nic),, a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrews in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his quondam popularity among the common people." It will be remembered that this game is mentioned by Scott in St. Ronaris Well—"Na, na, said the boy, he is a queer old cull. ... He gave me half-a-crown yince, and forbade me to play it awa' at pitch and toss." "And you disobeyed him, of course ? " " Na, I didna disobey him—I played it awa' at ' Nievie, nievie, nick-nack.' See "Handy-dandy." |
||