A similar game is played in London, called (we are told) "Ghost in the Copper."
The original of the "ghost" appears in the corresponding German game, where we find in his stead the "evil spirit," who haunts the garden.
No. 159.
The Enchanted Princess.
This interesting European game, though never naturalized in this country, has been occasionally played as a literal translation from the printed French. A little girl raises above her head her frock, which is sustained by her companions, who thus represent the tower in which she is supposed to be confined. The "enemy" comes up, and asks, "Where is pretty Margaret?" The answer is, "She is shut up in her tower." The "enemy" carries off one by one the stones of the tower (leads away, that is, the girls who personate stones), until one only is left, who drops the frock, and flies, pursued by Margaret, who must catch some one to replace her.
The celebrated French song begins, "Where is fair Margaret, Ogier, noble knight?"[145] "Ogier" is none other than Olger the Dane, hero of mediæval romance. The childish drama is one form of the world-old history of a maiden who is delivered by a champion from the enchanted castle. In the territory of Cambrai, she who is shut up in the tower is said to be "the fair one with the golden locks." We consider the following number to be a variation of the same theme.
No. 160.
The Sleeping Beauty.
About fifty years since, in a town of Massachusetts (Wrentham), the young people were in the habit of playing an exceedingly rustic kissing-game. A girl in the centre of the ring simulated sleep, and the words were—
There was a young lady sat down to sleep;
She wants a young gentleman to wake her up;
Mr. —— —— shall be his name.
The awakening was then effected by a kiss.
The same game comes to us as a negro sport from Galveston, Texas, but in a form which shows it to be the corruption of an old English round: