—Settle, Yorkshire (Rev. W. S. Sykes).
(b) The players stand in a circle, boy and girl alternately, and sing the lines. At the fourth line they all clap their hands, keeping time with the song. When singing the seventh line each boy takes the girl on his left hand,—dances round with her and places her on his right hand. This is done till each girl has been all round the circle, and has been turned or danced with by each boy. In the [Wolstanton version] (Miss Bush), after singing the first four lines, the children fall behind one another, march round, clapping their hands and singing; at the seventh line they all join in couples and gallop round very quickly to the end. When they finish, the girls stand at the side of the boys in couples, and change places every time they go round until each girl has partnered each boy. At Hexham there is rather more of the regular dance about the game at the beginning. At the fourth line they set to partners and swing round, the girls changing places at the end, and continuing until they have been all round each time with a different partner.
(c) This game seems of kin to the old-fashioned country dances. Miss Bush writes that this game was introduced into the school playground from Derbyshire a few years ago, and is sung to a simple tune.
Puss in the Corner
The children stand at fixed points: one stands in the middle and chants, “Poor puss wants a corner.” The others beckon with the fore-finger, and calling, “Puss, puss,” run from point to point. Puss runs also to one of the vacant spaces. The one left out becomes puss.—Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).
The players place themselves each in some “coign of vantage,” as the play place allows; one player in the middle is “out.” Those in the corners change places with each other at choice, calling, “Puss, puss, puss,” to attract each other’s attention. The one who is out watches his opportunity to slip into a vacant corner, and oblige some one else to be “out.” A favourite game in the streets of Market Drayton.—Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 523.
When we played this game, the child who was to be “Puss” was invariably decided upon by a counting-out rhyme. He or she being the last of the five players “not he.” The words we used when wishful to change corners were, “Puss, puss, give me a drop of milk.” The players in the corners beckoned with the finger to an opposite player in another corner (A. B. Gomme).
The game in Scotland is called “Moosie in the Corner,” and is played by boys or girls, or by both together, either outside or in a room. Each player takes a corner, and one stands in the middle. On a given signal, usually by calling out the word “Change,” a rush is made from the corners. The aim of the one standing in the middle is to reach a vacant corner. If the game is played in a room, as many chairs, or other seats, are placed as there are players, less one. Each takes a seat, and one is left standing. On the word “Change” being called out, each jumps from the seat and makes for another. The one standing strives to get a seat in the course of the change.—Nairn and Macduff (Rev. W. Gregor).