This game is practically the same as “[Fool, Fool, come to School],” but the secret naming may indicate that this belongs to an earlier form.
See “[Fool, Fool],” “[Hecklebirnie].”[Addendum]
Neighbour
There is a game called “Neighbour, I torment thee,” played in Staffordshire, “with two hands, and two feet, and a bob, and a nod as I do.”—Halliwell’s Dictionary.
Neiveie-nick-nack
A fireside game. A person puts a little trifle, such as a button, into one hand, shuts it close, the other hand is also shut; then they are both whirled round and round one another as fast as they can, before the nose of the one who intends to guess what hand the prize is in; and if the guesser be so fortunate as to guess the hand the prize is in, it becomes his property; the whirling of the fists is attended with the following rhyme—
Neiveie, neiveie, nick nack,
What ane will ye tak,
The right or the wrang?
Guess or it be lang,
Plot awa’ and plan,
I’ll cheat ye gif I can.
—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.
The Rev. W. Gregor says at Keith this game is played at Christmas, and by two. The stakes are commonly pins. One player conceals a pin, or more if agreed on, in one of his (her) hands. He then closes both hands and twirls them over each other, in front of the other player, and repeats the words—