"How many horses has your father got in his stables?"
A. Three.
"What colour are they?"
A. Red, white, and grey.
(Whirling him round.) "Then turn about, and twist about, and catch whom you may."
To make barley bread (in other districts, "Cockley bread") this rhyme is used in West Cornwall:—
"Mother has called, mother has said,
'Make haste home, and make barley bread.'
Up with your heels, down with yom: head,
That is the way to make barley bread."
Bobby Bingo.
Of this, which is a very common game at school-treats in some parts of West Cornwall, I have only lately through the kindness of the Rev. S. Rundle succeeded in getting a description. He saw some children in 1884 playing it in his parish, (Godolphin, Helston). A ring is formed, into the middle of which goes a child holding a stick, the others with joined hands run round in a circle singing—
"There was a farmer had a dog.
His name was Bobby Bingo;
B. I. N. G. O.
His name was Bobby Bingo."
When they have finished singing they cease running, whilst the one in the centre pointing with his stick asks them in turn to spell Bingo. If they all spell it correctly they again move round singing; but, should either of them make a mistake, he or she has to take the place of the middle man.
Weigh the Butter, weigh the Cheese.
Is rather dangerous, and now but rarely played. Two children stand back to back with their arms locked. One stoops as low as he can, supporting the other on his back, and says, "Weigh the butter"; he rises, and the second stoops in his turn with "Weigh the cheese." The first repeats with "Weigh the old woman"; and it ends by the second, with "Down to her knees."
