(b) Dr. Tylor says: “It is interesting to notice the wide distribution and long permanence of these trifles in history when we read the following passage from Petronius Arbiter, written in the time of Nero:—‘Trimalchio, not to seem moved by the loss, kissed the boy, and bade him get up on his back. Without delay the boy climbed on horseback on him, and slapped him on the shoulders with his hand, laughing and calling out, “Bucca, bucca, quot sunt hic”?’—Petron. Arbitri Satiræ, by Buchler, p. 84 (other readings are buccæ or bucco).”—Primitive Culture, i. 67.

Buck i’ t’ Neucks

A rude game amongst boys.—Dickinson’s Cumberland Glossary.

Buckerels

“A kind of play used by boys in London streets in Henry VIII.’s time, now disused, and I think forgot” (Blount’s Glossographia, p. 95). Hall mentions this game, temp. Henry VIII., f. 91.

Buckey-how

For this the boys divide into sides. One “stops at home,” the other goes off to a certain distance agreed on beforehand and shouts “Buckey-how.” The boys “at home” then give chase, and when they succeed in catching an adversary, they bring him home, and there he stays until all on his side are caught, when they in turn become the chasers.—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 60).

Buff

1st player, thumping the floor with a stick: “Knock, knock!”
2nd ditto:“Who’s there?”
1st:“Buff.”
2nd:“What says Buff?”
1st:“Buff says Buff to all his men,
And I say Buff to you again!”
2nd:“Methinks Buff smiles?”
1st:“Buff neither laughs nor smiles,
But looks in your face
With a comical grace,
And delivers the staff to you again” (handing it over).

—Shropshire (Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 526).