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io4 QUEEN OF SHEBA—RAGMAN
He's plenty of money to dress in silk [fu' braw'], For there's nae bonnie laddie can tack me awa'. One morning I rose and I looked in the glass, Says I to myself, I'm a handsome young lass; My hands by my edges, and I give a ha, ha, For there's nae bonnie laddie t' tack me awa'.
—Cullen (Rev. W. Gregor).
(b) The Scottish game is played by girls. The players join hands, form a circle with one in the centre, and dance round singing. At the words "'ill tack me awa'," the centre player chooses another one, and the two wheel round. Then the singing proceeds. At the exclamation u ha! ha! " the players suit the action to the words of the line. In the Cullen game the girls stand in a row with one in front, who sings the verses and chooses another player from the line. The two then join hands and go round and round, singing the remaining verses.
Queen of Sheba
Two rows of people sit on chairs face to face on each side of a door, leaving just sufficient space between the lines for a player to pass. At the end of the rows furthest from the door sits the " Queen of Sheba," with a veil or shawl over her head. A player, hitherto unacquainted with the game, is brought to the door, shown the Queen, and told to go up between the rows, after being blindfolded, to kiss her, taking care, meanwhile, to avoid treading on the toes of the people on each side the alley leading to the lady. While his mind is diverted by these instructions, and by the process of blindfolding, the Queen gives up her seat to " the King," who has been lurking in the background. He assumes the veil and receives the kiss, to the amusement of every one but the uninitiated player.
—Anderby, Lincolnshire, and near the Trent, Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peacock).
Ragman
An ancient game, at which persons drew by chance poetical descriptions of their characters, the amusement consisting—as at modern games of a similar kind—in the peculiar application or misapplication of the verses so selected at hazard by the drawers.—Halliwell's Dictionary. Halliwell goes on to |
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