He then forces his way out of the ring, and whoever catches him becomes Bull.—Berrington (Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 519, 520).
Another version is that the child in the centre, whilst the others danced around him in a circle, saying, “Pig in the middle and can’t get out,” replies, “I’ve lost my key but I will get out,” and throws the whole weight of his body suddenly on the clasped hands of a couple, to try and unlock them. When he had succeeded he changed the words to, “I’ve broken your locks, and I have got out.” One of the pair whose hands he had opened took his place, and he joined the ring.—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 50).
(b) Mr. S. O. Addy says the following lines are said or sung in a game called “T’ Bull’s i’ t’ Barn,” but he does not know how it is played:—
As I was going o’er misty moor
I spied three cats at a mill-door;
One was white and one was black,
And one was like my granny’s cat.
I hopped o’er t’ style and broke my heel,
I flew to Ireland very weel,
Spied an old woman sat by t’ fire,
Sowing silk, jinking keys;
Cat’s i’ t’ cream-pot up to t’ knees,
Hen’s i’ t’ hurdle crowing for day,
Cock’s i’ t’ barn threshing corn,
I ne’er saw the like sin’ I was born.
Bulliheisle
A play amongst boys, in which, all having joined hands in a line, a boy at one of the ends stands still, and the rest all wind round him. The sport especially consists in an attempt to heeze or throw the whole mass on the ground.—Jamieson.
See “[Eller Tree],” “[Wind up Jack],” “[Wind up the Bush Faggot].”
Bummers
A play of children. “Bummers—a thin piece of wood swung round by a cord” (Blackwood’s Magazine, Aug. 1821, p. 35). Jamieson says the word is evidently denominated from the booming sound produced.