Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ ones should be used. The person deputed to pronounce judgment on those of his friends who have had to pay the forfeits may either invent something on the spur of the moment, or make use of what he has seen in a book or may have stored in his memory. Originality in such cases is often the best, simply because the sentence is made to suit, or rather not to suit, the victim; and the object of course of all these forfeit penances is to make the performers of them look absurd. For those players, however, who in preference to anything new still feel inclined to adopt the well-known good old-fashioned forfeits, we will supply a list of as many as will meet ordinary requirements.

      1. Bite an inch off the poker.—This is done by holding the poker the distance of an inch from the mouth, and performing an imaginary bite.

      2. Kiss the lady you love best without any one knowing it.—To do this the gentleman must of course kiss all the ladies present, the one he most admires taking her turn among the rest.

      3. Lie down your full length on the floor, and rise with your arms folded the whole time.

      4. Kneel to the wittiest, bow to the prettiest, and kiss the one you love best.—These injunctions may, of course, be obeyed in the letter or in the spirit, just as the person redeeming the forfeit feels inclined to do.

      5. Put yourself through the keyhole.—To do this the word "Yourself" is written upon a piece of paper, which is rolled up and passed through the keyhole.

      6. Sit upon the fire.—The trick in this forfeit is like the last one. Upon a piece of paper the words, "The fire," are written, and then sat upon.

      7. Take one of your friends upstairs, and bring him down upon a feather.—Any one acquainted with this forfeit is sure to choose the stoutest person in the room as his companion to the higher regions. On returning to the room the redeemer of the forfeit will be provided with a soft feather, covered with down, which he will formally present to his stout companion, obeying, therefore, the command to bring him down upon a feather.

      8. Kiss a book inside and outside without opening it.—This is done by first kissing the book in the room, then taking it outside and kissing it there.

      9. Place a book, ornament, or any other very small article on the floor, so that no one in the room can possibly jump over it.—The way this is done is to place the article close to the wall.

      10. Shake a sixpence off the forehead.—It is astonishing how even the most acute player may be deceived by this sixpenny imposition. The presiding genius, holding in his fingers a sixpence, proceeds with an air of great importance to fasten the coin upon the forehead of the victim, by means of first wetting it, and then pressing it firmly just above the eyes. As soon as the coin is considered to be firmly fixed, he takes away his hands, and also the coin. The person operated upon is then told to shake the sixpence down to the floor, without any aid from his hands, and so strong generally is the impression made upon the mind of the victim that the sixpence is still on the forehead, that the shaking may be continued for several minutes before the deception be discovered.

      11. Put one hand where the other cannot touch it.—This is done by merely holding the right elbow with the left hand.

      12. Kiss the candlestick.—Request a young lady to hold a lighted candle, and then steal a kiss from her.

      13. Laugh in one corner of the room, sing in another, cry in another, and dance in another.

      14. Leave the room with two legs, and return with six.—To do this you must go out of the room, and come back bringing a chair with you.

      15. Put four chairs in a row, take off your boots, and jump over them.—This task would no doubt appear rather formidable for a young lady to perform, until she is made to understand that it is not the chairs, but the boots, she is expected to jump over.

      16. Blow a candle out blindfold.—This forfeit is very similar to the game, elsewhere described, of Blowing out the Candle; still, there is no reason why it should not take its place among the rest of the forfeits. The victim is blindfolded, turned round a few times, and then requested to blow out the light. When the performance is over, the owner of the forfeit will no doubt have well deserved to have his property returned to him, for if securely blindfolded the task will have been no easy one. Another way of blowing out the candle is to pass the flame rapidly backwards and forwards before the mouth of the player, who must try to blow it out as it passes, a method that is almost, if not quite, as difficult as the former one.

      17. The German band.—In this charming little musical entertainment, three or four of the company can at the same time redeem their forfeits. An imaginary musical instrument is given to each one—they themselves must have no choice in the matter—and upon these instruments they must perform as best they can.

      18. Ask a question, the answer to which cannot possibly be answered in the negative.—The question, of course, is "What does y-e-s spell?"

      19. The Statue.—The unfortunate individual doomed to redeem his forfeit by acting a statue must allow himself to be placed in one position after another by different members of the company, and thus remain stationary until permission is given him to alter it.

      20. The Sentence.—A certain number of letters are given to the forfeit-payer, who must use each one in the order in which it is given him for the commencement of a word. All the words, when made, must then form a sentence—placing the words in their proper order exactly as the letters with which they begin were given.

      21. Comparisons.—The gentleman or lady must compare some one in the room to some object or another, and must then explain in which way he or she resembles the object, and in which way differs from it. For instance, a gentleman may compare a lady to a rose, because they are both equally sweet; unlike the rose, however, the lady is of course, without a thorn.

      22. The Excluded Vowels.—Pay five compliments to some lady in the room. In the first one the letter a must not occur, in the second the letter e must be absent, in the third there must be no i, in the fourth no o, and in the fifth no u.

      23. Kiss your own shadow.—The most pleasant method of executing this command is to hold a lighted candle so that your shadow may fall on a young lady's face, when you must take the opportunity of snatching a kiss.

      24. Form a blind judgment.—The person upon whom the sentence has been passed must be blindfolded. The company are then made to pass before him one by one, while he not only gives the name of each, but also his opinion concerning them.

      Not unfrequently the victim has to remain blindfold a very long time, for even if the name should be guessed correctly, it is no easy matter to form a just estimate of character, and unless his ideas meet with the approbation of the company, his forfeit is withheld from him.

      Great silence must be observed while the ordeal of examination is going on. No one should speak, and all should step as lightly as possible.

      25. Act the dummy.—You must do whatever any of the company wish you to perform without speaking a single word.

      26. The telegraphic message.—Send your lover's name by telegram to the other end of the room. To do this you must whisper the favoured name to the person sitting next to you, who will whisper it to his neighbour, and so on until every one has been made acquainted with it.

      27. Act the Prussian soldier.—This penance СКАЧАТЬ