(3.) The mother and children are represented in childish fashion as a hen and her brood (see our B, and No. 101). Hence the game of the "Rich and Poor Birds;" see references in No. 8, note.—Italian, Corazzini, pp. 86-88. Gianandrea, No. 19, "Madonna Pollinara."
(4.) The children are denoted by the names of leaves or flowers.—German, Vernaleken, p. 58, "Die Grossmutter." The visitor begs for a leaf as balsam to heal her injury, and the girls are gathered under the name of leaves. So Frischbier, p. 181. Feifalik, No. 81.—Spanish, Maspons y Labrós, pp. 87-89, game of "Pulling Leeks."
(5.) The game has become a representation of selling pottery.—German, Frischbier, p. 183. Mannhardt, p. 284.—Swedish, Arwiddson, iii. 169, "Selling Pots," a dance, has become a mere mercenary transaction.—The English game of "Honey-pots" is a version of this, where the weighing feature is to be explained as in No. 152.—Italian, Bernoni, p. 57, "I Piteri," where the original idea reappears. The purchaser advances limping (a characteristic of witches), and the game is one of stealing and recovery (like our London version E).—Italian, Gianandrea, No. 19. The first part of the game is played as in (3). The "pots" are weighed, as in the English game mentioned. Ferraro, G. Monfer., No. 43, where the purchaser is the devil, and the game thus passes over into the form of No. 153.—Spanish, Maspons y Labrós, p. 87, "Las Gerras."
(6.) A game of stealing or measuring cloth.—German, Rochholz, p. 437, "Tuch anmessen." In this game, mentioned by the mother of Goethe (Düntzer, Frauenbilder aus Goethe's Jugendzeit, p. 506), the children are arranged against the wall to represent cloth, which the dealer measures and names by the color of the stockings of the children. A thief steals the cloth bit by bit, which the dealer must recover by guessing the color, a task of some difficulty, the stockings having been taken off in the interval. A very curious Low-German version, Brem. Wiegenlieder, p. 61, removes any doubt as to the relation of the amusement to the original game. In this version the colored cloths are only names for children. There are verbal coincidences with forms given in the text, the dialogue beginning "Mother, the broth is boiling over!" (as in our version B), put (as in our version C) into the mouth of the watcher left in charge by the absent mother; so Aus dem Kinderleben, p. 39, "Leinendieb." The remainder of the first paragraph of C will be found almost word for word in Handelmann, p. 57, No. 80, "Frau Rosen," a version of the form (2).—Italian, Bernoni, p. 55, "I Brazzi de Tela," "the measures of cloth." The thief advances limping, the owner having departed, steals the cloth, but is pursued, and the goods recovered, as in the game of pots described above. Ferraro, G. Monfer., No. 3.—French, Celnart, p. 43, "La Toile," has become a kissing romp of grown people.
(7.) Finally, to the same root belong various rounds and dances which represent a mother who wishes to marry her many daughters, or of a poor widow who has but one daughter; see our No. 8, and note.
155. German, Grimm, No. 15, "Hansel und Grethel."
156. Gent.'s Mag., Feb. 1738, "Fryar's Ground."—Spanish, Maspons y Labrós, p. 92.—French, Celnart, p. 53, "Chateau du Corbeau;" "Je suis dans ton château, corbeau, et j'y serai toujours."—German, Meier, p. 98, "Ist der Kukuk zu Haus?" see No. 115, note. German games based on this idea are numerous. Vernaleken, p. 77, "The Black Man;" p. 62, "Dead man, arise;" p. 73, "Wassermannspiel." The child representing the Water-spirit lies in the dry bed of a brook and pretends to sleep. The rest approach to tease him, when he endeavors to seize one without leaving the brook or pit. The first so caught must assist him to capture the rest. The superstition about a treasure buried at the foot of the rainbow is also Swiss, see Lütolf, Sagen, etc., Von Lutzern, p. 384.
157. A variation of 156.—German, Meier, p. 121. Rochholz, p. 415.
158. German, Meier, p. 102, "Der Böse Geist."
159. French, Celnart, p. 365, etc.—German, Vernaleken, p. 52, etc. See Mannhardt, Germ. Myth., pp. 492-511, who gives twenty-three versions, including a Spanish (Catalan) one. He imagines, as usual, a good deal of mythology in the game. The mythologic character belongs, not to the details of the children's rounds, but to the cycle of traditions on which these are founded. The name in Suabia is "Prinzessin erlösen," "to disenchant the princess."