Whenever we light upon any kind of Runic pieces, we are at once confined to the north, Scandinavia and England. Though so numerous in the Northern lands, no Runic Calendar has ever yet been found in any Saxon or German province, except a couple bought or brought by modern travellers, as curiosities from Scandinavia.
Stephens says this whole class of Antiquities has never yet been properly treated. It offers work for one man's labours during a long time and many journeys. It would produce a rich harvest as to the signs and symbols, and Runes as modified by local use and clannish custom. All the symbol marks should be treated in parallel groups. The various and often peculiar Runes should be carefully collected and elucidated. All this is well worthy of a competent Rune-Smith, Computist, and Ecclesiologist. On many of the old Runic Calendars, especially in Sweden, we find a "lake" or game long famous all over Europe, but now mostly known to children, called "the Lake" or game of Saint Peter. This is an ingenious way of so placing 30 persons, that we may save one half from death or imprisonment, by taking out each ninth man as a victim, till only one half the original number is left. These 15 are thus all rescued. Of course the man thus taken must not be counted a second time.
Formerly the favoured 15 were called Christians and the other Jews. Carving this in one line, we get the marks so often found on Rune-clogs:
xxxx|||||xx|xxx|x||xx|||x||xx|
The story about it is this: Saint Peter is said to have been at sea in a ship in which were 30 persons, the one half Christians and the other half Jews. But a storm arose so furious that the vessel had to be lightened, and it was resolved to throw overboard half the crew. Saint Peter then ranged them in the order we see, every ninth man was taken out. The crosses betoken the Christians and the strokes the Jews. In this way all the Jews were cast into the deep while all the Christians remained. Herewith the old were wont to amuse themselves.
Folk-lore of children in rhyme and ritual. The child is surrounded by an ancient circle of ritualism and custom. Visitors to see the infant must take it a threefold gift. In some districts in Yorkshire the conditions are a little tea, sugar, and oven-cake. Another Yorkshire practice is to take an egg, some salt, and a piece of silver. The child must not be brought downstairs to see the visitor, for to bring it downstairs would be to give it a start in life in the wrong direction. The form of this idea is to be found in certain (Japanese) customs. The child's finger-nails must not be cut with scissors, for iron had such close association with witchcraft. The nails must be bitten off with the teeth. This practice survives in some adults, much to the disgust of their friends.
Of children's games, that known as "Hopscotch" was originally a religious rite practised at funerals. It was symbolical of the passage of the soul from the body to heaven or the other place to which the ancients gave various names. The pattern which is drawn for the purpose of this game has been found on the floor of the Roman Forum.
Another game called "Cat's Cradle" was played by the North American Indians, and has recently found on an island north of Australia. When children could not play on account of the rain they recited a little rhyme which is still known to-day by the people of Austria and in the wilds of Asia. The game of "Ring o' Roses" is the survival of an old incantation addressed to the Corn Spirit. When the wind rippled across the cornfield the ancient harvesters thought the corn god was passing by, and would recite the old rhyme, closing with the words, "Hark the cry! hark the cry! all fall down!" Sometimes the corn spirit was supposed to become incarnated in the form of a cow, hence the line in the nursery jingle, "Boy Blue! the cow's in the corn." When the boy donned his first pair of breeches he must pass through a ritual. He must be nipped. The significance of the nip was a test to see whether the boy in the new breeches was the same boy, or whether he had been changed by the fairies or evil spirits. This idea of a change by evil spirits might seem far-fetched, but so recently as 1898, in the records of the Irish courts there was a case in which an Irishman was tried for accusing his wife of not being the same person as when he married her, and of the woman being branded in consequence. Superstitions as to the cure of certain childish complaints survive in the cure for whooping cough, to take the sufferer "over t' watter." That is the only medicinal use of the river Aire, near Leeds.