42 SEX-LORE 



where choice is somewhat more individual, though 

 still left a good deal to chance. Thus it was quite a 

 common custom for men to pick their brides at the 

 fair, in England as late as the seventeenth century, 

 just as they chose, and still choose, hired labourers 

 in remote country places. The maids were decked 

 out in all the finery they could gather together. We 

 read of a Russian mother who, not knowing what 

 she could add to her daughter's toilet on one of these 

 occasions, contrived to make her a necklace of six 

 dozen gilt teaspoons, with a girdle of an equal number 

 of tablespoons, and then fastened a couple of punch- 

 ladles behind in the form of a cross. 



This manner of choosing a partner still finds, per- 

 haps, a reflection in modern children's games. It has 

 been pointed out by students of folk-lore that 

 children's games, nursery rhymes, folk-songs, etc., 

 often represent corrupt versions of actual customs as 

 practised by grown-up people in ancient times. They 

 lose more or less of their original sense and meaning 

 in the verbal transmission through the ages. In 

 most cases, however, the reference to bygone usages 

 can still be made out. Of some of these games we 

 may perhaps make mention in connection with our 

 subject. Thus there is the well-known " On the 

 mountain stands a maiden; who she is I do not 

 know," " Poor Mary stands a-weeping," " Rise, 

 Sally Waters," " Silly old maid, she stands alone," 

 " Silly old man, he wants a wife," and many more. 

 In all these games the lover is chosen out of a ring 

 formed by the other players, and there is often a 

 chase, which is followed by a kiss upon the capture 

 of the chosen one. This custom of standing in a 



