The Traditional Children's Games of England Scotland
& Ireland In Dictionary Form - Volume 2

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	TIT-TAT-TOE 297
	This number is then scratched through on the diagram, to signify that it is taken, the other players proceed in the same manner as the first; then the first one begins again. This is continued till all the numbers are scratched out, or till one of the players puts his pencil into the centre, and thus wins the game. If all the figures are taken before the centre is touched, the game goes to the " Old man " or " Old Nick." Also, if one player puts his pencil in a division already taken, he records nothing and loses that turn; this is also the case if, after the

	verse is repeated, the pencil is found to be on a division or boundary line or outside the round.—London (A. B. Gomme). I was taught by a maid servant to play this game on the ground. This girl drew the round and divisions and figures on the gravel path or mould in the garden, and sharpened a piece of stick at one end for the pointer. She did not know the game as one played on slates, but always played it on the ground in this way. This game appears to indicate a lottery, and might originally have had something to do with allotting pieces of land or other property to prospective owners under the ancient common field