“Snail, snail, put out your horn,”
is repeated in China as well as in this country, though sometimes altered to
“Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else I’ll beat you black as a coal.”
One equally familiar form of childish invocation appears in the pretty little lady-bird rhyme, so often repeated by the young:—
“Lady-bird, lady-bird,
Fly away home,
Your house is on fire,
Your children will burn.”
A favorite way, with boys, of choosing sides for a game of ball is by measuring the stick. To do this, the leader of one side first heaves the stick in the air, skilfully catching it, as it falls, at a point as near a hand’s-breadth to the end as possible, as his opponent must then measure the stick with him, alternately hand-over-hand, from the point where it is caught. The one securing enough of the last of the stick for a hold, has the first choice. This is determination by lot.
Still another form of invocation, formerly much used to clinch a bargain between boys, when “swapping” jack-knives or marbles, runs to this effect:—
“Chip, chop, chay,
Give a thing, give a thing,
Never take it back again.”