ittle ones have been in haste to proceed with the game, and in no
mood to waste time in counting out each one to the last, they have taken
the sharper process of saying--

Red, white, yellow, blue,
All out but you,

and by the first reading fixed the relationship of parties.

Now, a very important and interesting feature of these rhymes and their
application, as I have said, is found in the fact that they prevail in a
more or less identical form all over the world. When this is so, their
common origin is placed almost beyond dispute. The question only, which
perhaps no one can answer, is--Whence come they? It would not be
hazarding too much to say, I think, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in
their turn as boys, with other boys of their time, each used a form of
counting-out rhyme in the manner and for the purpose for which they are
still in vogue by the boys and girls of the present day. Undoubtedly
they found a precedent, if they did not actually themselves exercise a
part, in the very ancient custom of casting lots, which prevailed among
the heathen as well as among the chosen people of God in very early
times. From sacred history we learn that lots were used to decide
measures to be taken in battle; to select champions in individual
contests; to determine the partition of conquered or colonised lands; in
the division of spoil; in the appointment of Magistrates and other
functionaries; in the assignment of priestly offices; and in criminal
investigations, when doubt existed as to the real culprit. Among the
Israelites, indeed, the casting of lots was divinely ordained as a
method of ascertaining the Holy will, and its use on many interesting
occasions is described in the Holy Scriptures. The simplicity of the
process, and its unanswerable result, were appreciated by Solomon, who
says: "The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the
mighty" (Prov. xviii. 18). In New Testament times, again, Matthias was
chosen by lot to "take the place in this ministry and apostleship from
which Judas fell away" (Acts i. 24-26). The Babylonians, when about to
wage war against another nation, were wont to determine which city
should be attacked first by casting lots in a peculiar manner. The names
of the cities were written on arrows. These were shaken in a bag, and
the one drawn decided the matter (see Ezekiel xxi. 21-22). A like method
of divination, called _belomany_, was current among the Arabians before
Mahomet'