"Vickery vickery vaist,
I know a girl who has got no waist;
Another is blue, another is red;
A cock if he's killed must be dead."
The best oracle was the boy or girl who could be most funny. Here I might mention a very popular rhyme game, when every one in turn made a couplet to the toast, "Vive la company," in which they brought in some characteristic of some one present, such as the following:—There was a stout girl who was asked to dance, and said she was tired; her would-be partner answered, "Oh, never mind, I'll carry you." After supper, when the rhymes were going round, hers was—
"I drink to those who are jolly and sound,
Vive la company;
I'll dance with the man who can carry round,
Vive la company."
This twenty years ago was a favourite after-supper game with grown people in Munster. "Looby looby light" was a favourite game. I knew an old couple in Galway about twenty years ago who delighted to get a lot of young people together, and always ended off with, "Here we dance looby light," the man enjoying the fun as much as the youngest child, while the wife played the piano. The words were:—
"Here we dance looby looby,
Here we dance looby light;
Put your right hand in,
Put your right hand out,
Shake it a little a little,
And then we will turn about;
Then it was the left hand.
Then the right foot,
Then the left foot."
Ending with—
"Put your noodle in.
Put your noodle out,
Shake it a little a little,
And then you may turn about."
The noodle business led to a bit of romping and accidental (?) knocking of heads together. We had also the game of "Fool fool,"
