Part 43

"Early on the morning of Whit-Tuesday pilgrims arrive at Echternach from the neighbouring villages, some alone, or in little family parties, some in small bodies personally conducted by their _curés_, singing litanies in honour of St. Willibrord. At about eight o'clock the bells of the parish church begin to peal, and the clergy, intoning the 'Veni Creator,' and preceded by numerous banners, issue from the principal porch and march along the bank of the Sure to a stone crucifix, near which, from an extemporised pulpit, the crowd is addressed. The short sermon ended, the procession begins. It is headed by a choir of some hundreds of voices chanting antiphonally with the clergy the litanies of the saint. Then come numerous ecclesiastics, followed by a band playing the cadenced music of the dance. The pilgrims are headed by young children and men and women belonging to the parish, after whom comes the throng, in groups of from three to six persons of either sex. The dancers take three jumps forward and one backward, or five forward and two backward. It is, of course, impossible for a moving crowd consisting of many thousands to keep anything like time, save those who are near one of the many bands of music, which, at irregular intervals, accompany the procession. No special order is observed, but there is no confusion. Poor mothers with sickly children in their arms jump side by side with young well-to-do girls; old men, broken with toil, jump in step with vigorous fellows in the heyday of youth. Water and wine are freely offered by the townsfolk to the pilgrims, many of whom sink exhausted under the unwonted effort. It sometimes happens that sick persons get paid substitutes to perform for them the expiatory jumping. The distance traversed is less than a mile, but the time occupied is fully two hours. Before the church can be entered sixty-four steps have to be mounted. But the singular backward and forward movements and the accompanying music are continued, not only while the steps are ascended, but during the circumambulation of the church, beneath the altar of which is the tomb of the saint. On reaching the hallowed shrine the devotees manifest their enthusiasm in various ways, kneeling before the altar, which is surrounded by votive offerings, with sobs and gesticulations. When the whole of the immense multitude has passed the shrine, the clergy ascend the altar, the 'Salve Regina' is sung, the Benediction is given, and the imposing ceremony is ended."

Grimm also records the fact that about the year 1133 in a forest near Inda (Ripuaria) a ship was built, set upon wheels, and drawn about the country by men who were yoked to it, first to Aachen (Aix), and up the river to Tongres, Looz, and so on, everywhere with crowds of people assembling and escorting it. Wherever it halted there were joyful shouts, songs of triumph, and dancing round the ship, kept up till far into the night. This Grimm describes as a recollection of an ancient heathen festival. It was utterly repugnant to and opposed strongly by the clergy as a sinful and heathenish piece of work. On the other hand, the secular power authorised and protected it (_Teutonic Mythology_, i. 258).

The story of the pied piper of Hamelin probably commemorates a procession similar to the Echternach (see _Folk-lore Journal_, vol. ii. 209).

With this may also be noted a dance recorded by Mr. Newell (_Games of American Children_, p. 89), who states that the name "Threading the Needle" is given to a dance in which hundreds take part; in which from time to time the pair who form the head of the row raise their arms to allow the line to pass through, coiling and winding like a great serpent. When a French savant asked the peasants of La Châtre why they performed this dance, the answer was, "To make the hemp grow."

I remember when quite a small child planting hemp seeds in a patch of garden ground, and being told by a maid-servant, an illiterate country girl, that the seeds would not grow well unless we danced, we joined hands and danced round and round in a circle, then stooped down and jumped about, saying, "Please, God, send it all up," then again danced round. This may have been said only to amuse us, but it may also have been the remains of an old festival dance. I believe there were more words, but I cannot remember them. Hemp seed is associated with ceremonies of magical nature, being one of those used by maidens as a charm to enable them to see a future husband.

Representation in pantomime of the different actions used in the ceremonies of sowing the grain, its growth, and the consequent reaping, binding, and carrying the grain, are practised in different parts of the globe. This is brought down to later times by the custom noted on p. 319, vol. i., where from _Long Ago_ and Best's _Rural Economy of Yorkshire_ (1641), instances are given of it being customary, at harvest-homes, to give representations of "hirings" of farm-servants. The hiring of a farm labourer, the work he had to do, his terms of service, and the food to be supplied him, were dramatically performed, showing clearly that it had been customary to go through this sort of thing, in earnest of what was expected--in fact, a sort of oral contract, in presence of witnesses.

I will conclude this part of my evidence by a summary of the conclusions arrived at by anthropological authorities.

Sir John Lubbock, in _Origins of Civilisation_ (fifth ed., p. 257), says, "Dancing among savages is no mere amusement." He quotes from Robertson's _America_ (iv. p. 133) as follows: "It is an important occupation, which mingles in every occurrence of public or private life. If any intercourse be necessary between two American tribes, the ambassadors of the one approach in a solemn dance, and present the calumets or emblem of peace; the sachems of the other receives it with the same ceremony. If war is denounced against an enemy, it is by a dance expressive of the resentment which they feel, and of the vengeance which they meditate. If the wrath of their gods is to be appeased, or their beneficence to be celebrated; if they rejoice at the birth of a child, or mourn the death of a friend--they have dances appropriate to each of these situations, and suited to the different sentiments with which they are animated. If a person is indisposed, a dance is prescribed as the most effectual means to restore him to health; and if he himself cannot endure the fatigue of such an exercise, the physician or conjurer performs it in his name, as if the virtue of his activity could be transferred to his patient."

Sir J. Lubbock mentions some special dances practised among different peoples, and gives an illustration of a circle dance practised by the natives of Virginia round a circle of upright stones (p. 268).

Dr. Tylor (_Anthropology_, p. 296) says, "Savages and barbarians dance their joy and sorrow, love and rage, even their magic and religion. The forest Indians of Brazil, rattle in hand, stamp in one-two-three time round the great earthen pot of intoxicating kawi-liquor; or men or women dance a rude courting dance, advancing in lines with a kind of primitive polka step; or the ferocious war-dance is performed by armed warriors in paint. We have enough of the savage left in us to feel how Australians leaping and yelling at a corrobboree by firelight in the forest can work themselves up into frenzy for next day's fight. But with our civilised notions it is not so easy to understand that barbarians' dancing may mean still more than this; it seems to them so real, that they expect it to act on the world outside. Such an example as the buffalo dance (given _ante_, p. 518) shows how, in the lower level of culture, men dance to express their feeling and wishes. All this explains how in ancient religion dancing came to be one of the chief acts of worship. Religious processions went with song and dance to the Egyptian temples, and Plato said all dancing ought to be thus an act of religion. . . . Modern civilisation has mostly cast off the sacred dance. . . . To see this near its old state the traveller may visit the temples of India, or among the Lamas of Tibet watch the mummers in animal masks dancing the demons out or the new year in, to wild music of drums and shell-trumpets. Remnants of such ceremonies come down from the religion of England before Christian times are still sometimes to be seen in the dances of boys and girls round the midsummer bonfire or mummers of Yuletide."

Dr. Tylor continues: "At low levels in civilisation it is clear that dancing and play-acting are one. The scenes of hunting and war furnish barbarians with subjects for dances, as when the Gold Coast negroes have gone out to war and their wives at home dance a fetish dance in imitation of battle to give their absent husbands strength and courage. . . . Historians trace from the sacred dances of ancient Greece the dramatic art of the civilised world. Thus from the festivals of the Dionysia arose tragedy and comedy. In the classic ages the players' art divided into several branches. The pantomimes kept up the earliest form, where the dancers acted in dumb show such pieces as the labours of Herakles, or Kadmos sowing the dragons teeth, while the chorus below accompanied the play by singing the story. The modern pantomime ballets which keep up remains of these ancient performances show how grotesque the old stage gods and heroes must have looked in their painted masks. In Greek tragedy and comedy the business of the dancers and chorus were separated from that of the actors, who recited or chanted each his proper part in the dialogue."

Grimm (_Teutonic Mythology_, i. p. 43), says, "Easter fires, May Day fires, Midsummer fires, with their numerous ceremonies, carry us back to heathen sacrifices, especially such customs as rubbing the sacred flame, running through glowing embers, throwing flowers into the fire, baking and distributing loaves or cakes, and the circular dance. Dances passed into plays and dramatic representations."

It is then clear that dances accompanied with song and pantomimic action have been used by men and women from the earliest period of which we have record, at all times and upon all occasions. In times of joy and mirth, sorrow and loss, victory or defeat, weddings and funerals, plagues and pestilences, famine and plenty, civilised and savage alike dance, act, and sing their griefs and their joys. The gods of all nations have been worshipped by pantomimic dance and song, their altars and temples are encircled by their worshippers; and as the occasion was one of fear or joy, and the god entreated or terrified by his followers, so would the actions and voices of the dancers be in accord. When once certain actions were recognised as successful, fitting, or beautiful, they would tend to become repeated and stereotyped, and the same form would be used for other gods, other occasions, and other customs where the requirements were similar or the same. The circle dance, for instance, after being performed several times would necessarily become a part of the religious customs or ceremony, and form a part of the ordinary religious observance. It would become particularly associated with the place where it was first instituted, and might be used to inaugurate other festivals. We know that the early Christians when taking over to their use the temples and altars of their so-called heathen predecessors, or when erecting a church where a temple had previously stood, held their worship there and performed their dances to their God as the heathens had done to theirs. The custom of encircling a church on its festival day existed until lately in several parishes in England, and this could only be a descendant of the custom once held sacred by all the followers of one belief, demonstrating by their action in group form the fact that they all believed in the same thing and held together, by the clasp of hands and the dance round, their determination to hold to and keep to it.

If these customary dances obtained and have survived in religious ritual to the present day, is it not to be expected that we should find survivals in dance form of non-religious customs which also impressed themselves strongly on the minds of the people? Births, marriages, deaths, the sowing and gathering in of the crops; the protection of cattle from disease and animals of prey; the necessity for water and fire; the protection of the house and the village--have all helped to surround these events with ceremonials which have lasted, and been transmitted from generation to generation, altering to suit later ideas, it is true, but preserving through all some trace of the events which first called them into existence.

It is because of this tendency to believe more in the power of expression by action, than in the power of expression by language alone, that dramatic action and gesture have formed such a necessary part of representation of custom as to become an integral part of it. Limited as is our knowledge of the popular plays performed about the country by troops of strolling players before the age of the written play, we know that their chief attraction must have been the dramatic rendering of characters and events personified by certain well-known actions of the actors, accompanied by special style of dress, or portions of dress, which were recognised as sufficient in themselves to show who and what was being personified. The story was shown more by action than by words; the idea being to present events to the onlooker, and impress them on his mind. It is in these dramatic performances of what was expected we have the germs of the dramatic art that afterwards developed into the regular play or drama. Every important custom of life was probably depicted by pantomimic action. We have, first, words, describing the events, sung or said by a chorus of onlookers and dancers, afterwards a short dialogue between the chief characters taking the place of the chorus, and then, as the number of characters were increased, the representations become something that could be performed independently, without the need of a particular season or custom to render it intelligible.

At this stage of the primitive drama the characters merely present actions of the _dramatis personæ_ time after time, always performed in the same manner, and this would produce conventional methods of presenting certain events. We know that events of a religious nature were presented in the same manner by the Church. This must have been in consequence of the attraction plays possessed as depicting pagan religion and events of ordinary life and manners and customs. It is easily conceivable that before the era of books and literature, a rough sort of presentation of life, present and past, would be eagerly welcomed; and it would not be until the advent of a writer who developed the individual acting, at the expense of the event depicted, that what we know as a play could be written.

Mr. Ordish, in his study of Folk drama, published in the Folk-lore Society's journal, has conclusively proved the development of the drama independently of the miracle and mystery plays of the Middle Ages, or from the old Greek plays, and this development has taken place through the action of the people, always accustomed to the influence of dramatic representation. Hence in the remains of the traditional games we have preserved a form in which we can see the beginning and early development of the drama. When once the line form was firmly established as an indication of two opposite parties, it would be used for such indication wherever it was required, and thus it became the common property of the children's game and the early stage. The remains of the line and circle form, as denoting opponents and friendly communion can, I think, be traced in old plays and old methods of acting.

In old pantomimes, the demons or evil spirits and their followers enter on one side and stand in lines; the good fairy and her followers enter on the opposite side and stand in line; the principal characters advance from the line, and talk defiance to each other. We do not have a circle form on the stage, but a half-circle, seated on the stage, is or was until comparatively lately a method of representing a social or family party. Every one who has seen a mummer's play performed, either in or out of doors, will be aware that the same method obtains in them--the performers are all on the stage or stand together at once, walking forward as each one's name is mentioned, saying his allotted part, and then standing back again, while the next player has his turn.

The action in these plays has remained in stationary form; as far as the method goes there has probably been very little difference in the manner of presenting them for a long period of time.

These traditional games are valuable, therefore, for the information they afford in a direction not hitherto thought of, namely, in the study of the early drama. If the drama can be seen in its infancy anywhere, surely it can be seen in these children's plays.

The study of children's games takes us, therefore, into several departments of research. Many traces of customs that do not belong to modern life, customs that take us back to very early times indeed, are brought before us. The weapons are bows and arrows, the amusements hunting and hawking; animals are found in such close relationship with human beings, that only very primitive conditions of life would allow: contests between men and women occur in such a way that we are taken back to one of the earliest known customs of marriage, that known as marriage by capture--then from this stage to a later, where purchase or equivalent value obtains; then to a marriage with a ceremony which carries us back to the earliest forms of such ceremonies. That such customs can be suggested in connection with these games goes far to prove that they, in fact, originate the game--that no other theory satisfactorily accounts for all the phenomena.

In looking for the motive power which has caused the continuity of these customs to be practised as amusements, we have found that the dramatic power inherent in mankind supplies the necessary evidence, and from this stage we have been led to an interesting point in the early history of the drama and of the stage. It is not, therefore, too much to say that we have in these children's games some of the oldest historical documents belonging to our race, worthy of being placed side by side with the folk-tale and other monuments of man's progress from savagery to civilisation.

ALICE B. GOMME.

THE END

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London

Transcriber's notes:

General:

This eBook is Volume II of a two-volume work. Volume I is available as ebook number 41727 via the website of Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41727). Because Volume I was published in 1894 and Volume II in 1898, there is no symmetry in the references between the two volumes (for example, Gled Wylie from Volume I does not refer to Shue-Gled-Wylie from Volume II, whereas Shue-Gled-Wylie does refer to Gled Wylie).

This text follows the original printed work, including inconsistencies. Inconsistencies include differences in spelling of the names of games and locations, differences in transcription of dialect, inconsistencies in lay-out, etc. Where changes were made, these are documented below.

References:

Both volumes contain some uncertain references to (other) games, caused by the naming and/or spelling of game names. Where these differences were trivial (for example, Wolf and Lamb versus Wolf and the Lamb), their identity has been assumed silently. Following is a list of less trivial references.

The game Stag is often referred to as Stag Warning, but occasionally they are listed as thought they were separate games.

Page xiv: Lubin, Looby Loo is listed as game in the Addenda, but not present there; Hulla-balloo-ballee is not listed, but present in Addenda (including references to Lubin and Looby Loo).

Page 56: reference to the Scottish version. From the text and the analysis this is probably version XVIII.

Page 145: reference to Tag. This game is not listed as such, but according to the description it could be a version of French Jackie, which is called French Tag in some places.

Page 282: reference to See the Farmer Sow his Seed, which is not a separate game, but one version of Oats and Beans and Barley.

Page 307 and 421: reference to Twos and Threes, which is not a separate game, but a local name for Round Tag.

Page 383: reference to Silly Young Man, which is probably a mistake for Silly Old Man.

Page 436: reference to Jolly Lads, which is not a separate game (probably the game intended is Jolly Sailors).

Page 467: reference to Drummer Man; no such game listed, the only Drummer Man occurs in one of the variants of Follow my Gable.

Page 470: reference to Lugs; there is no such game listed, possibly this should be Luggie.

Page 476: reference to Old Widow; there is no such game listed, it could be a reference to Poor Widow; Baste the Bear, ditto, this is mentioned under Badger the Bear; Old Woman, ditto, this could refer to Dumb Motions.

Textual remarks:

At least some of the quotations presented by the author are not verbatim quotations, they have been edited by the author (for example Aubrey on cockle-bread).

In the Addenda, the original work uses Arabic rather than Roman numerals for different variants; this has not been changed.

The original work uses both 2-4 and 2/4 to indicate musical time; this has not been standardised.

Page 199: Love another like sister and brother is probably a mistake (Love one another like sister and brother).

Page 336/7: The original work does not give a source or authority for variation XXV.

Changes made to the original text:

Footnotes have been moved to end of the description of the game or to immediately underneath the relevant paragraph (in the Memoir).

Sources (when printed in smaller type in the original work) have been moved to a separate line where necessary.

In the Addenda, the references to games have been moved to the next line.

First page: mustergiltig changed to mustergültig (exemplary)

Page vii: Pocklington Coltman changed to Pocklington-Coltman

Page xiii: Teesty-Totsy changed to Teesty-Tosty as in text

Page xv: Game Hulla-balloo-ballee added to list

Page 35: the other player's changed to the other players

Page 56-60: some rows consisting of dashes only were combined in the original work, these have been split into separate rows

Page 66: Hurstmonceaux changed to Hurstmonceux as elsewhere

Page 67: Hurstmonceaux changed to Hurstmonceux as elsewhere

Page 88: galop changed to gallop as elsewhere

Page 100: square brackets moved from line of verse to explanation, as elsewhere [I pray ... the ball], putting ... three girls. changed to I pray ... the ball, [putting ... three girls.]

Page 101: square bracket after yield up the ball. removed

Page 108: Egmond changed to Edgmont

Page 150: Biddgelert changed to Beddgelert

Page 153: (variant VIII) rise, Sally changed to rise, Sallie

Page 167: Strixwould changed to Stixwould

Page 192: Encyclopedia changed to Encyclopædia as elsewhere

Page 212: seldom or ever changed to seldom or never

Page 214: Warkwickshire changed to Warwickshire

Page 221: 1 and 2 changed to I and II as elsewhere

Page 274: come with we changed to come with me

Page 304: Schir, [zeta]it remembir as of befoir changed to Schir, [yogh]it remembir as of befoir

Page 321/2: I. and II. added for consistency

Page 323: Collyhurst changed to Colleyhurst as elsewhere

Page 324: Ill changed to I'll

Page 333: Sprole changed to Sporle

Page 347: Hartley Witney changed to Hatley Wintney

Page 359: Authencairn changed to Auchencairn

Page 360: beleagured changed to beleaguered