Giants
A Giant is chosen, and he must be provided with a cave. A summer-house will do, if there is no window for the Giant to see out of. The others then have to knock at the door with their knuckles separately. The Giant rushes when he thinks all the children have knocked, and if he succeeds in catching one before they reach a place of safety (appointed beforehand) the captured one becomes Giant.—Bitterne, Hants (Mrs. Byford). See “[Wolf].”
Giddy
Giddy, giddy, gander,
Who stands yonder?
Little Bessy Baker,
Pick her up and shake her;
Give her a bit of bread and cheese,
And throw her over the water.
—Warwickshire.
(b) A girl being blindfolded, her companions join hands and form a ring round her. At the word “Yonder” the blindfolded girl points in any direction she pleases, and at line three names one of the girls. If the one pointed at and the one named be the same, she is the next to be blinded; but, curiously enough, if they be not the same, the one named is the one. Meanwhile, at line four, she is not “picked up,” but is shaken by the shoulders by the still blindfolded girl; and at line five she is given by the same “bread and cheese,” i.e., the buds or young leaves of what later is called “May” (Cratægus oxyacantha); and at line six she is taken up under the blinded girl’s arm and swung round.—Warwickshire (Notes and Queries, 6th Ser., viii. 451).
Gilty-galty (or gaulty)
A boy’s game. One boy is chosen, who says:—
Gilty-galty four-and-forty,
Two tens make twenty.
He then counts one, two, three, four, &c., up to forty, having his eyes covered by his hands, and the others hide while he is saying the “nominy.” At the conclusion he uncovers his eyes, and if he sees any boys not yet hidden they have to stand still. He seeks the rest, but if he moves far away from his place, called the “stooil” (stool), one of the hidden boys may rush out and take it, provided he can get there first. Should he fail in this he also has to stand aside; but if any one succeeds, then all run out as before, and the same boy has to say the “nominy” again. On the other hand, if he finds all the boys without loosing his “stooil,” the boy first caught has to take his place and say the “nominy.” The game was thus played in 1810, and is so still, both here and at Lepton.—Easther’s Almondbury and Huddersfield Glossary.