Malaga, Malaga Raisins
A forfeit game. The players sat in a circle. One acquainted with the trick took a poker in his right hand, made some eccentric movements with it, passed it to his left, and gave it to his next neighbour on that side, saying, “Malaga, Malaga raisins, very good raisins I vow,” and told him to do the same. Should he fail to pass it from right to left, when he in his turn gave it to his neighbour, without being told where the mistake lay, he was made to pay a forfeit.—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 50).
“Malaga raisins are very good raisins, but I like Valencias better,” is the saying used in the London version of this game, and instead of using a poker a paper-knife is used, and it is played at the table. Other formulæ for games of this kind are, “As round as the moon, has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.” These words are said while drawing on a table with the forefinger of the left hand an imaginary face, making eyes, nose, and mouth when saying the words. The fun is caused through those players who are unacquainted with the game drawing the imaginary face with the right hand instead of the left. Another formula is to touch each finger of the right hand with the forefinger of the left hand, saying to each finger in succession, “Big Tom, Little Tom, Tommy, Tom, Tom.” The secret in this case is to say, “Look here!” before commencing the formula. It is the business of those players who know the game to say the words in such a way that the uninitiated imagine the saying of the words correctly with particular accents on particular words to be where the difficulty lies. If this is well done, it diverts suspicion from the real object of these games.—A. B. Gomme.
Marbles
Brand considers that marbles had their origin in bowls, and received their name from the substance of which the bowls were formerly made. Strutt (Sports, p. 384) says, “Marbles have been used as a substitute for bowls. I believe originally nuts, round stones, or any other small things that could easily be bowled along were used as marbles.” Rogers notices “Marbles” in his Pleasures of Memory, l. 137:—
“On yon gray stone that fronts the chancel-door,
Worn smooth by busy feet, now seen no more,
Each eve we shot the marble through the ring.”
Different kinds of marbles are alleys, barios, poppo, stonies. Marrididdles are marbles made by oneself by rolling and baking common clay. By boys these are treated as spurious and are always rejected. In barter, a bary = four stonies; a common white alley = three stonies. Those with pink veins being considered best. Alleys are the most valuable and are always reserved to be used as “taws” (the marble actually used by the player). They are said to have been formerly made of different coloured alabaster. See also Murray’s New English Dict.
For the different games played with marbles, see “[Boss Out],” “[Bridgeboard],” “[Bun-hole],” “[Cob],” “[Hogo],” “[Holy Bang],” “[Hundreds],” “[Lag],” “[Long-Tawl],” “[Nine Holes],” “[Ring Taw].”