Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1904-02-11
No. 6.

ton of the meriah, or sacred sacri-
fetal victim, TO the corn god Of the an
clients, a custom once everywhere prev
alent, and continued until quite lately
at Benin city, IN India, and elsewhere.
"Hopscotch" is an old game. Its germ
was almost certainly the labyrinth and
the we'll nigh universal myth of the
Minotaur. Afterward. on the introduc-
ton of Christianity, the labyrinth was
abandoned, to be replaced by the
ground plan of the basilica, the earliest
Christian church.
The players divided it in seven parts,
as they believed heaven to be divided,
and placed paradise in the position of
the altar, the inner sanctum of their
earthly church. The whole game came
then to represent the progress Of the
soul from earth to heaven through va
rious intermediate states, the name
given to the last court being invaria-
bly, paradise" or its equivalent.
Well worship, one of the earliest and
most widespread of religious cults, is
symbolized in many games, notably
in the one where the children sing:
Draw a pail CT water
For q lady's daughter.
The seesaw movement of the players
at the beginning of this ancient and
still popular game is intended to repre-
sent the raising of the water from the
well. Next is announced the arrival Of
the devotee, ''my lady's daughter"
collecting flowers for decking the we'll
(shrine), making a cake for presenta-
ton to the god Tor goddess) of the well,
offerings of jewelry, and so on. 1t can
be by no mere chance that game
played by rustic village children today
duplicates step by step each detail Of
the ritual of the primitive we'll wor-
slippers.
1t is the same with almost all the
genuine old childrens games. Every
where can be traced degenerate, frag-
mentary survivals of the social life,
ceremonies and religious practices Of
our early ancestors.
Here we go round the mulberry
bush," for instance, is a survival Of
tree worship. "Cat cradle" played prac-
tically by all savage and civilized peo-
pies the world over, has its hidden
significance of horrid rites. 1t is COM
monplace, the important part played in
black magic by string, cords and knots.
But 1t is the so called matrimonial
games that throw the most lurid light
on the social manners and customs of
our prehistoric savage forefathers.
Here we come gathering nuts in
May" symbolizes that earliest form of
sexual union, marriage by capture. In
This game, as played to this very day
on many a British village green, there
enters absolutely no element of love or
courtship. The object of each male
child is to obtain possession of fe-
male child by brute strength, and lie
always tries his luck or his skill ION
q cold and frosty morning" of course.
In those dim, faraway days there
were no roads. Across the frozen mo-
rasses into the widest recesses of the
swampy "forest primeval' he could
under such atmospheric conditions
bear his bride in safety.
kiss in the ring brings us down to
a far later date The evolution Of mar
rage has reached the point at which
choice or se'c~t'on becomes the domi-
nant factor, although ere Is still the
pretense of .lAising away the feigncd
resistance to capture and its concomi-
tant betrothal.
Still more modern is the game known
as "knights from Spain," in which one
nd stands out pre-eminently from the
others.
ct am gentleman come from Spain;
I've come to court your daughter Jane"
chants the child suitor, to which the
mother" of the assembled girls makes
reply:
my daughter Jane is yet too young
To listen to your forward tongue"
There is much more in the same style,
but 1t ends up with the chorus, sung
by both sides (all the children) in uni
son:
Let her be young or let her be old
It's for her beauty she must be sold"
Here we get, of course, marriage by
purchase, which everywhere suppressed
ed in course of time marriage by cap
ture and which is not even yet by any
means entirely extinct.
The worldwide custom which decreed
that the bride should make and bake
some dainty for her spouse on the we'd
ding eve is daintily symbolized in the
favorite old Kentish singing game:
(Polly) made a pudding so nice and sweet.
And Johnnie) got his knife and cut 1t
round so neat.
Saying Taste, love- taste, love, don't say
nay,
For tomorrow-morrow-m is our
wedding day."
Our bought wedding cake is of course
an unsentimental survival of this pret-
ty custom.
But perhaps the most interesting
from the ethnologist's point of view of
all children's games is that where the
players sing the old familiar refrain,
commencing:
Sallie, Sallie, water,
Sprinkle in the pan.
Cry Sallie, cry Sallie,
For young man.
Here water Is not the surname to
Sallie, but actual water, as the con-
text, Sprinkle in the pan," plainly
shows. 1t is relic of water worship,
which everywhere has to do with love,
marriage and children. "Cry" does not
mean to weep, but to "cry" aloud her
wish Qor young NAM, as the town
"crier" to this day 'cries" things or as
children "cry" forfeits.
Note that 1t is the girl now that
makes known her need of husband.
The game is, in fact, survival Of the
matriarchate of our remote pre-Celtic
progenitors, that strange, little under
stood custom which gave to the women
the privilege of woolng. of ruling, OF
inheriting, and relegated man to an al