beach, except the face. After lying a time an exit is made in the best way the buried one can (Portessie, Macduff, Penan, Rosehearty).
VII.—Dances and Games.
{a) The boys and girls at times amuse themselves by dancing on the sands any of the ordinary dances. One, however, used to be danced called "Sea-brackin". The players take their stand behind each other, and, on a given signal, the first one in the line stoops, then suddenly rises and throws up the arms, and then sets off at a run, stooping and rising and throwing up the arms. The others do the same. Thus they run on, imitating the rising and falling of the waves or roll of the sea. If one falls it is called a "shipwreck", and the unfortunate one must lie and allow the players behind to leap over (Rosehearty).[1]
{b) A game, called "Beat the Bear", is played by the children of Portessie in the following way. One is chosen as the bear and another as the guard. A circle is drawn, and a stone is placed in the centre of the circle. On this stone the bear seats himself, and gets into his hand a piece of string by one end. His guard takes hold of the other end of the string, and sets himself in a position to defend the bear. He holds in his other hand his cap, or handkerchief plaited. The other players all stand round ready to fall on the bear and pelt him with their caps or plaited handkerchiefs. The one the guard strikes first becomes in his turn the bear, and the former bear becomes the guard. The game continues as long as the players wish.
The same game was played at Keith when I was a boy, with this difference, that the bear crouched on his hands and knees with his head stuck down between his hands as
- ↑ I think Miss Gordon Cumming somewhere gives a description of a similar dance in one of the South Sea Islands, but I cannot find the exact reference.
