I love Antimacassar,
Antimacassar loves me.
Put your left foot in,
Put your right foot out,
Shake it a little, a little, a little,
And turn yourself about.
—Dorsetshire (Miss M. Kimber).
(b) A ring is formed and the children dance round, singing the first verse. They then stand till, sing the next verse, and, while singing, suit the action to the word, each child turning herself rapidly round when singing the last line. The first verse is then repeated, and the fourth sung in the same way as the second, and so on.
Another way of playing is that the children do not dance round and round. They form a ring by joining hands, and they then all move in one direction, about half way round, while singing the first line, “lubin;” then back again in the opposite direction, while singing the second line, “light,” still keeping the ring form, and so on for the third and fourth lines. In each case the emphasis is laid upon the “Here” of each line, the movement being supposed to answer to the “Here.”
The [Dorsetshire version] (Miss M. Kimber) is played by the children taking hands in pairs, forming a ring, and dancing round. At [Eckington] (S. O. Addy) the children first pretend to wash their hands, then their face, while singing the words; then comb their hair and brush their clothes; then they join hands and dance round in a ring singing the words which follow, again suiting their actions to the words sung.
In the [Scottish version] a ring is formed as above. One sings, and the rest join, to the tune of “Lillibullero,” the first line. As soon as this is concluded each claps his hand and wheels grotesquely, singing the second line. They then sing the third line, suiting the action to the word, still beating the time; then the second again, wheeling round and clapping hands. When they say “A’ feet in, and nae feet out,” they all sit down with their feet stretched into the centre of the ring.
(c) The other variants which follow the [Halliwell version] are limited to the first verse only, as the remainder of the lines are practically the same as those given in [Miss Fowler’s version] which is written at length, and three or four of these apparently retain only the verse given. A London version, collected by myself, is nearly identical with that of Miss Fowler, except that the third line is “Shake your —— a little, a little,” instead of as printed. This is sung to the [tune] given.
The incidents in this game are the same throughout. The only difference in all the versions I have collected being in the number of the different positions to be performed, most of them being for right hands, left hands, right feet, left feet, and heads; others, probably older forms, having “ears,” “yourselves,” &c. One version, from [Eckington], Derbyshire, curiously begins with “washing hands and face,” “combing hair,” &c., and then continuing with the “Looby” game, an apparent “mix-up” of “[Mulberry Bush]” and “Looby.” Three more versions, [Sporle], [Cornwall], and [Dorsetshire], also have different beginnings, one ([Dorsetshire]) having the apparently unmeaning “I love Antimacassar.”
(d) The origin and meaning of this game appears somewhat doubtful. It is a choral dance, and it may owe its origin to a custom of wild antic dancing in celebration of the rites of some deity in which animal postures were assumed. The [Hexham version], “Here we come louping [leaping]” may probably be the oldest and original form, especially if the conjecture that this game is derived from animal rites is accepted. The term “looby,” “lubin,” or “luby” does not throw much light on the game. Addy (Sheffield Glossary) says, “Looby is an old form of the modern ‘lubber,’ a ‘clumsy fellow,’ ‘a dolt.’” That a stupid or ridiculous meaning is attached to the word “looby” is also shown by one of the old penances for redeeming a forfeit, where a player has to lie stretched out on his back and declare,