Heading
the backs of those who were down, the best and steadiest jumpers being sent first. Sometimes the passive line was broken quite easily by the ruse of a short high jump, coming with irresistible impulse on a back which was not expecting weight just yet. Sometimes a too ambitious leap-frogger ruined his party by overbalancing and falling off. It was, however, as the last two or three leap-froggers came on that the real excitement more generally began. There was absolutely no back-space belonging to the other party left to them; and they were obliged to pile themselves one upon another—'Pelion on Ossa' as it was called. When the last man was up it was his duty to say, 'High cockalorum jig jig jig—high cockalorum jig jig jig—high cockalorum jig jig jig—off, off, off,' and then alone was it permissible for tortured and perspiring human nature to fall in one indistinguishable heap to the ground. The repeater of the shibboleth often fell off himself as he was uttering the above incantation—thus losing the victory for his side. It was a splendid game. I understood from family inquiries that it was played at Harrow in my great grandfather's time.
Cock and-Breeches, subs. (common).—A
sturdy, little man, or
boy.
Cock-and-Bull-Story, subs. (colloquial).—An
idle or silly story.
[Presumably from some old
legend of a cock and a bull,
apropos to which it should be
noted that the French equivalent
is coq-à-l'âne, a cock-and-ass.']
1603. John Day, Law Trickes, Act iv., p. 66. Didst marke what a tale of a Cock and a Bull he tolde my father whilst I made thee and the rest away.
1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. IX., ch. xxxiii. L—d! said my mother, what is all this about? A Cock and a Bull, said Yorick—and one of the best of its kind I ever heard.
1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. v. That sounds like a cock-and-bull story, said the young fellow whom they call John. I abstained from making Hamlet's remarks to Horatio and continued.
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., xxiv., p. 432. 'Giving ear to a cock-and-bull story that can't be true!'
Cock-and-Hen-Club, subs. (common).—1.
A free and easy
gathering, or 'sing-song,' where
females are admitted as well
as males. [From cock-and-hen,
the male and female bird,
and used figuratively for men
and women, + club.]
1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib's Mem. to Congr., p. 78. A Masquerade, or Fancy Ball, given lately at one of the most fashionable Cock-and-Hen Clubs in St. Giles's.
1828. G. Smeeton, Days in London, p. 40. Introduced him to one of the cock-and-hen houses near Drury Lane Theatre well primed with wine.
2. A club for both sexes; e.g., The Lyric.
Cock-and-Pinch, subs. (old).—The old-fashioned beaver of forty years since. [From its being cocked back and front, and pinched at the sides.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.
Cockatoo-Farmer, subs. (Australian).—In Victoria and New South Wales a small farmer or selector. A term of contempt used by large holders in describing agricultural squatters with small capital. [Probably an allusion to their numbers: a comparing to the rush for land, the swooping of cockatoos in myriads in new sown corn.]
1865. H. Kingsley, Hillyars and Burtons, ch. lx. The small farmers [in Australian wool districts] contemptuously called cockatoos are the fathers of fire, the inventors of scab, the seducers of bush-hands for haymaking and harvesting [and many other heinous crimes].
1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 64. The shepherd king tries to steal a march upon the poor cockatoo, as he contemptuously calls the small farmer.
1887. G. A. Sala, in Ill. L. News, 12 March, 282, col. 2. I venture to differ from my correspondent when, in telling
