s and
rhymed formulas which have preserved their vitality under the effacing
hand of Time, he says,--

"It will be obvious that many of these well-known game-rhymes were not
composed by children. They were formerly played, as in many countries
they are still played, by young persons of marriageable age, or even
by mature men and women.... The truth is, that in past centuries all
the world, judged by our present standard, seems to have been a little
childish. The maids of honor of Queen Elizabeth's day, if we may
credit the poets, were devoted to the game of tag, with which even
Diana and her nymphs were supposed to amuse themselves....

"We need not, however, go to remote times or lands for illustration
which is supplied by New England country towns of a generation ago.
Dancing, under that name, was little practiced; the amusement of young
people at their gatherings was "playing games." These games generally
resulted in forfeits, to be redeemed by kissing, in every possible
variety of position and method. Many of these games were rounds; but
as they were not called dances, and as man-kind pays more attention to
words than things, the religious conscience of the community, which
objected to dancing, took no alarm.... Such were the pleasures of
young men and women from sixteen to twenty-five years of age. Nor were
the participants mere rustics; many of them could boast as good blood,
as careful breeding, and as much intelligence, as any in the land.
Neither was the morality or sensitiveness of the young women of that
day in any respect inferior to what it is at present.

"Now that our country towns are become mere outlying suburbs of
cities, these remarks may be read with a smile at the rude simplicity
of old-fashioned American life. But the laugh should be directed, not
at our own country, but at the bygone age. It must be remembered that
in mediaeval Europe, and in England till the end of the seventeenth
century, a kiss was the usual salutation of a lady to a gentleman whom
she wished to honor.... The Portuguese ladies who came to England with
the Infanta in 1662 were not used to the custom; but, as Pepys says,
in ten days they had 'learnt to kiss and look freely up and down.'
Kissing in games was, therefore, a matter of course, in all ranks....

"In respectable and cultivated French society, at the time of which we
speak, the amusements, not merely of young people but of their elders
as well, were every whit as cru