The tale of Jack was current in Münster in Westphalia also, where it was taken over by the Church, and annually recited at the religious procession which took place on the eve of the feast of St. Lambert, 17 September. This was done as late as the year 1810 (R., p. 155). The recitation was followed or accompanied by a dance, the purpose of which is not recorded. Perhaps the procession stood in relation to the actual garnering of pears, and the tale was recited in order to secure a good harvest. In this case not Jack, but der Jäger, "the huntsman," was dispatched to knock the pears off, and the sequence of powers included dog, stick, fire, water, calf, butcher, hangman, devil.
This adoption by the Church of the sequence of powers shows that we have to do with the remains of a heathen ritual, which found its way into a Christian celebration, as the tale of the kid found its way into the Easter celebration of the Jewish Church. In both instances the sequence of relative powers is preserved, and in both it is question of making an object secure for the use of man.
The same sequence of powers is preserved also in the traditional game that is known as Dump among ourselves (1894, I, 117; II, 419), and as Club Fist in America (N., p. 134). In this game it is also a question of building a house, and of knocking off pears. The action of the players, however, stands in no obvious relation to the words that are used. Sometimes three, sometimes a number of lads, crowd together and place their fists sideways one on the other, till they form a pile of clenched hands. The last boy, who has a fist free, knocks off the fists one by one, saying:—
(In Yorkshire) What's this?—(Answer) Dump.
(In America) What's that?—(Answer) A pear.
Take it off or I'll knock it off.
In Shropshire all sing together:—
I've built my house, I've built my wall;
I don't care where my chimneys fall.
When all the fists are knocked down, the following dialogue ensues:—
What's there?—Cheese and bread and a mouldy half-penny.
Where's my share?—I put it on the shelf, and the cat got it.
Where's the cat?—She's run nine miles through the wood.
Where's the wood?—T' fire burnt it.
Where's[Pg 128] the fire?—T' water sleckt it.
Where's the water?—T' ox drunk it.
Where's the ox?—T' butcher killed 'em.
Where's the butcher?—Upon the church-top cracking nuts, and you may go and eat the shells; and them as speak first shall have nine nips, nine scratches, and nine boxes on the ear.
(1849, p. 128.)
Silence falls, all try not to laugh, and he who first allows a word to escape him, is punished by the others in the methods adopted by schoolboys. In the Scottish game the punishment is described as "nine nips, nine nobs, nine double douncornes, and a good blow on the back."
In France the same game is known as Le Pied de Bœuf, "the foot of the ox," and a scramble of fists starts at the words:—