Take him and bake him,
And give me a piece
When he’s done.
The child is then led off in a squatting position. Later the one who named them pretends tasting, and says, “Very nice,” or “You must be baked longer,” when another squatting walk and wait takes place.
A version sent by Mr. J. P. Emslie is similar to the other London versions—
“Buy my fine honey to-day.
Which shall I buy?
Taste ’em and try.
The child would then go round, pretending to taste, saying, ‘Don’t like that one,’ till one was approved. That one was then swung round to the tune given, the words being—
An apple for the king and a pear for the queen,
And a good jump over the bowling green.
At the last bar they swung the child higher and higher, and at the last note they swung it as high as they could. I believe the last note in the music should be G, but it was raised to give effect.”
In Scotland the game is called “Hinnie Pigs,” and is played as follows. The boys sit down in rows, hands locked beneath their hams. Round comes one of them, the honey merchant, who feels those who are sweet and sour, by lifting them by the arm-pits and giving them three shakes. If they stand these without the hands unlocking below they are then sweet and saleable, fit for being office-bearers of other ploys.—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.
In Ross and Stead’s Holderness Glossary this is described as a girls’ game, in which two carry a third as a pot of honey to market. It is mentioned by Addy (Sheffield Glossary) and by Holland (Cheshire Glossary). Mr. Holland adds, “If the hands give way before twenty is reached it is counted a bad honey pot; if not, it is a good one.”
In Dublin the seller sings out—