All the Soldiers in the Town
[Play [version 1], [version 2]]
All the soldiers in the town,
They all bop down.
—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
The children form into a ring and sing the above words. They “bop down” at the close of the verse. To “bop” means in the Suffolk dialect “to stoop or bow the head.”—Moor.
Allicomgreenzie
A little amusing game played by young girls at country schools. The same as “[Drop Handkerchief],” except that the penalty for not following exactly the course of the child pursued is to “stand in the circle, face out, all the game afterwards; if she succeed in catching the one, the one caught must so stand, and the other take up the cap and go round as before” (Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia). No explanation is given of the name of this game.
See “[Drop Handkerchief].”