7 
1888.] 279 [Mooney. 
tradesman, and selects two others as assistants. The candidates for 
apprenticeship, who ar always sure to be persons unacquainted with the 
game, ar then sent out of the hous, the door being fastend after them. 
A rope is next thrown over a rafter near the door, anda running noose 
fixd at one end, while one of the assistants holds the other. The employer 
then opens the door on a crack and, putting his head out, announces to 
those outside that he is in want of an apprentice to learn the trade. It is 
always a point to keep the applicants outside until they ar tired waiting, 
and if it be a cold night in winter they ar generally glad to get back into 
the hous on any terms by the time the door is opend. A candidate steps 
up to offer his services and is allowd to squeez through the doorway, 
which is at once closed behind him. His employer then advances as if to 
shake hands; instead of which he slips the noose over the wrist of the 
“apprentice, when one assistant, with a sudden haul on the other end of 
the rope, quickly puls the arm of the victim to a perpendicular above his 
head, while the other helper, grasping his free arm with one hand, pours 
a stream of cold water down the uplifted sleev on the other arm. In spite 
of his surprise at such treatment the victim is pretty sure to make no out- 
cry which would giv the alarm to those outside, and he takes his place in 
a warm corner to look on with grim satisfaction as ‘they enter one by one 
to receiv the same dose. They hay their revenge at the end, however, 
when the door is thrown open and the employer and his assistants run for 
their lives into the darkness over fields and ditches, pursued by the out- 
raged apprentices, who hav ful permission to pound and pinch them to 
their heart’s content if they can catch them. 
In another game of this kind the employer asks each one what wages 
he requires and when payment must be made. The servant may demand, 
for instance, ‘‘Ten pounds, twice a year,”’ that is, ten pounds in two half- 
yearly instalments. When all hav been hired they ar sent outside and 
admitted one at a time to receiv their pay. The two assistants then hold 
the hired man in a stooping position while the employer proceeds to pay 
him his wages by sticking him with a pin according to the number of 
instalments agreed upon. A light stick is sometimes used to drive home 
the pin, and if the victim be an unpopular character his salary is raisd 
with a surprising liberality. 
Another game is calld Cleats a T-soipin (clis a thépeen) or ‘Game of the 
Wisp.’’ In this two young fellows assume the character of lovers, one 
being drest as a woman, while both ar fantastically deckd out with wisps 
of straw along their arms and about their heads so as to conceal the fea- 
tures. As soon as they enter the room the lover espies the girl and makes 
toward her, while she retreats to one of the benches occupied by the com- 
pany. He follows and attempté to sit down beside her, when she pushes 
him away, and in the scuffle the occupants of the bench ar generally 
landed in a heap on the floor. She escapes to the other side of the room 
and the same scene is re-enacted. Throughout this rough courtship the 
presence of the company is totally ignored and they climb over benches 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. xxv. 128. 25. PRINTED DEC. 28, 1888. 
