A number of children stoop down in a row, clasping their hands under their legs. One child stands in front of them, and acts as owner or seller; another acts as purchaser (fig. 1). The purchaser inquires-
Have you any honey pots for sale?
Yes, plenty; will you walk round and taste them?
The purchaser goes round, pretending to taste each one in turn, inquiring the price and weight; finds fault with several, one being too sweet and the other not fresh enough, and so on. When one honey pot is discovered to the purchaser"s taste, she is lifted by the purchaser and owner, or by two children who act as weights or scales, and then swung by her arms backwards and forwards to estimate her weight and price (fig. 2). As long as the child can keep her hands clasped, so long is the swinging kept up; and as many times as they count, so many is the number of pounds she weighs. The seller sometimes said, when each one was bought-
Take her and bake her, And into pies make her, And bring her back When she is done.
They were not brought back, and the "owner" had to catch and bring back each one. When sold, the honey pot is taken to the other side, or "home"
of the purchaser. The game goes on till all the honey pots are sold.-London (A. B. Gomme).
In Sporle, a girl clasps her hands under her legs to form a seat, and two others swing her by the arms, saying-
Honey pot, honey pot, over the river; When the old cat dies you shall have the liver.
-Miss Matthews.
In a version sent by Miss Chase, and told her by a London maidservant, the children sit as in "Hunt the Slipper." One steps in a corner out of earshot; the rest are named "Gooseberry Tart," "Cherry Tart," &c., by another, who recalls the child in the corner with-
Fool, fool, come to school, Pick me out a [cherry tart, as the case may be].
If he chooses the wrong one he is told-
Go back and learn your A, B, C.
If rightly-
Take him and bake him, And give me a piece When he"s done.
The child is then led off in a squatting position. Later the one who named them pretends tasting, and says, "Very nice," or "You must be baked longer," when another squatting walk and wait takes place.
A version sent by Mr. J. P. Emslie is similar to the other London versions-
"Buy my fine honey to-day.
Which shall I buy?
Taste "em and try.
The child would then go round, pretending to taste, saying, "Don"t like that one," till one was approved. That one was then swung round to the tune given, the words being-
An apple for the king and a pear for the queen, And a good jump over the bowling green.
At the last bar they swung the child higher and higher, and at the last note they swung it as high as they could. I believe the last note in the music should be G, but it was raised to give effect."
In Scotland the game is called "Hinnie Pigs," and is played as follows.
The boys sit down in rows, hands locked beneath their hams. Round comes one of them, the honey merchant, who feels those who are sweet and sour, by lifting them by the arm-pits and giving them three shakes. If they stand these without the hands unlocking below they are then sweet and saleable, fit for being office-bearers of other ploys.-Mactaggart"s _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_.
In Ross and Stead"s _Holderness Glossary_ this is described as a girls"
game, in which two carry a third as a pot of honey to market. It is mentioned by Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) and by Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_). Mr. Holland adds, "If the hands give way before twenty is reached it is counted a bad honey pot; if not, it is a good one."
In Dublin the seller sings out-
Honey pots, honey pots, all in a row, Twenty-five shillings wherever you go- Who"ll buy my honey pots?
-Mrs. Lincoln.
The game is mentioned by a writer in _Blackwood"s Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, as being played in Edinburgh when he was a boy.
Hood
A game played at Haxey, in the Isle of Axholme, on the 6th of January.
The Hood is a piece of sacking, rolled tightly up and well corded, and which weighs about six pounds. This is taken into an open field on the north side of the church, to be contended for by the youths a.s.sembled for that purpose. When the Hood is about to be thrown up, the Plough-bullocks or Boggins, as they are called, dressed in scarlet jackets, are placed amongst the crowd at certain distances. Their persons are sacred, and if amidst the general row the Hood falls into the hands of one of them, the sport begins again. The object of the person who seizes the Hood is to carry off the prize to some public-house in the town, where he is rewarded with such liquor as he chooses to call for. This pastime is said to have been inst.i.tuted by the Mowbrays, and that the person who furnished the Hood did so as a tenure by which he held some land under the lord. How far this tradition may be founded on fact I do not know, but no person now acknowledges to hold any land by that tenure.-Stonehouse"s _Isle of Axholme_, p. 291.
W. J. Woolhouse (_Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, v. 95) says when the Hood is thrown up by the Chief of the Boggons or by the officials, it becomes the object of the villagers to get the Hood to their own village, the other eleven men, called Boggons, being stationed at the corners and sides of the field, to prevent, if possible, its being thrown out of the field; and should it chance to fall into any of their hands, it is "boggoned," and forthwith returned to the chief, who again throws it up, as at the commencement of the game. The next day is occupied by the Boggons going round the villages singing as waits, and they are regaled with hot furmenty; from some they get coppers given them, and from others a small measure of wheat. The day after that they a.s.sume the character of Plough-bullocks, and at a certain part of Westwood-side they "smoke the Fool"-that is, straw is brought by those who like, and piled in a heap, a rope being tied or slung over the branches of the tree next to the pile of straw; the other end of the rope is fastened round the waist of the Fool, and he is drawn up and fire is put to the straw, the Fool being swung to and fro through the smoke until he is well-nigh choked, after which he goes round and collects whatever the spectators choose to give him. The sport is then at an end till the next year. The land left by Lady Mowbray was forty acres, which are known by the name of "Hoodlands," and the Boggons"
dresses and the Hood are made from its proceeds.
In the contiguous parish of Epworth a similar game is played under the same name, but with some variations. The Hood is not here carried away from the field, but to certain goals, against which it is struck three times and then declared free. This is called "wyking" the Hood, which is afterwards thrown up again for a fresh game.-_Notes and Queries_, 6th series, vii. 148.
See "Football," "Hockey."
Hoodle-c.u.m-blind
Name for "Blind Man"s Buff."-Baker"s _Northamptonshire Glossary_.
Hoodman Blind
Name for "Blind Man"s Buff." Mentioned in _Hamlet_, iii. 4; _Merry Devil of Edmonton_; and _Wise Women of Hogsden_.
Hooper"s Hide
Name for "Blind Man"s Buff."-Nares" _Glossary_.
Hop-crease
The game of "Hop-scotch."-Halliwell"s _Dictionary_.
Hop-frog
The players bend as though about to sit on a _very low_ stool, then spring about with their hands resting on their knees.-Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 234).
Miss Peac.o.c.k says that a game called "Hop-frog over the Dog" is played at Stixwould, Lincolnshire, in the same way as "Leap-frog."
See "Curcuddie," "Cutch-a-cutchoo," "Harie Hutcheon," "Hirtschin Hairy."