Jamieson says: “Whether this play be a vestige of the very ancient custom of assuming the appearance and skins of animals, especially in the sports of Yule, or might be meant to symbolise the exertions made by the devil (often called ‘Hornie’) in making sinful man his prey, and employing fellow-men as his coadjutors in this work, I cannot pretend to determine.”
See “[Hunt the Staigie],” “[Whiddy].”
Hornie Holes
A game in which four play, a principal and an assistant on each side. A. stands with his assistant at one hole, and throws what is called a Cat (a piece of stick, and frequently a sheep’s horn), with the design of making it alight in another hole at some distance, at which B. and his assistant stand ready to drive it aside. The bat or driver is a rod resembling a walking-stick.
The following unintelligible rhyme is repeated by a player on the one side, while they on the other are gathering in the Cats, and is attested by old people as of great antiquity:—
Jock, Speak, and Sandy,
W’ a’ their lousy train
Round about by Errinborra,
We’ll never meet again.
Gae head ’im, gae hang ’im,
Gae lay ’im in the sea;
A’ the birds o’ the air
Will bear him companee.
With a nig-nag, widdy- [or worry-] bag,
And an e’endown trail, trail;
Quoth he.
—Jamieson.
The game is also called “[Kittie-cat].”
See “[Cat and Dog],” “[Cudgel],” “[Tip-cat].”