266 NURSERY RHYMES.

CCCCXLVII.

THIS game is now played as follows: A child hides something
in one hand, and then places both fists endways on each other,
crying,

Handy-dandy riddledy ro,
Which will you have, high or low?

Or sometimes the following distich:

Handy-dandy, Jack-a-dandy,
Which good hand will you have?

The party addressed either touches one hand, or guesses in
which one the article (whatever it may be) is placed. If he
guesses rightly, he wins its contents; if wrongly, he loses an
equivalent.

[Some versions read ‘‘ Mandy-pandy” in the first of these, with another variation that

would not now be tolerated. This is one of the oldest English games in existence,
and appears to be alluded to in ‘‘ Piers Ploughman,” ed. Wright, p. 69:

‘*Thanne wowede Wrong
Wisdom ful yerne,
To maken pees with his pens,
Handy-dandy played.”’]

CCCCXLVIII.
THE GAME OF DUMP.

A BoY’s amusement in Yorkshire, in vogue about half a century
ago, but now, I believe, nearly obsolete. It is played in this
manner. The lads crowd round and place their fists endways
the one on the other till they form a high pile of hands. Then
a boy who has one hand free, knocks the piled fists off one by
one, saying to every boy as he strikes his fists away, “What’s
there, Dump?” He continues this process till he comes to the
last fist, when he exclaims,

What’s there?—Cheese and bread and a mouldy halfpenny!
Where’s my share?—I put it on the shelf, and the cat got it.