the ring and take one in,
And kiss her in the centre.

The players form a ring by joining hands. One child--usually a
boy--stands in the middle. The ring moving round, sing the first four
lines. These completed, the ring stands, and still singing, each player
gives suitable action to the succeeding words; showing how the "farmer
sows his seeds," and how he "stands and takes his ease," etc. At the
tenth line all wheel round. They then re-join hands, still singing, and
at the words, "Open the ring and take one in," the child in the middle
chooses from the ring a partner (a girl, of course), whom he leads to
the centre and kisses as requested. The two stand there together, while
the ring, moving again, sing the marriage formula:--

Now you're married, you must obey,
Must be true to all you say;
You must be kind, you must be good,
And help your wife to chop the wood.

* * * * *

"~Hornie Holes~" is a boys' game in which four play, a principal and
assistant on either side. A stands with his assistant at one hole, and
throws what is called a "cat" (a piece of stick, or a sheep's horn),
with the design of making it alight into another hole at some distance,
at which B stands, with his assistant, to drive it aside with his rod
resembling a walking-stick. The following unintelligible rhyme is
repeated by a player on the one side, while they on the other are
gathering in the "cats." This is attested by old people as of great
antiquity:--

Jock, Speak, and Sandy,
Wi' a' their lousie train,
Round about by Edinbro',
Will never meet again.
Gae head 'im, gae hang 'im,
Gae lay him in the sea;
A' the birds o' the air
Will bear 'im companie.
With a nig-nag, widdy--(or worry) bag,
And an e'endown trail, trail,
Quo' he.

* * * * *

~The Craw~ admits of a good deal of lively exercise, involving, as Dr.
Chambers remarks, no more than a reasonable portion of violence. One boy
is selected to be craw. He sits down upon the ground, and he and another
boy then lay hold of the two ends of a long strap or twisted
handkerchief. The latter also takes into his right hand another
hard-twisted handkerchief, called the _Cout_, and runs round the craw,
and with the cout defends him against the attack of the other boys, who,
with similar couts, use all their agilit