The following from Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, p. 298, is also used for ball divination. To “cook” is to toss or throw.
Cook a ball, cherry tree;
Good ball, tell me
How many years I shall be
Before my true love I do see?
One and two, and that makes three;
Thankee, good ball, for telling of me.
See “[Ball],” “[Cuckoo],” “[Monday].”
Kibel and Nerspel
This game was played at Stixwold seventy years ago. It resembled “[Trap, Bat, and Ball].” Kibel = bat, ner = ball of maplewood, spel = trap, with a limock (pliant) stick fastened to it. The score was made by hitting the ner a certain distance, but not by the striker running, as in “[Rounders].”—Miss M. Peacock.
See “[Nur and Spell].”
King by your leave
“A playe that children have, where one sytting blyndefolde in the midle, bydeth so tyll the rest have hydden themselves, and then he going to seeke them, if any get his place in the meane space, that same is kynge in his roome.”—Huloet, 1572.
See “[Hide and Seek].”