Another name for the game is "Stag-out." One player is Stag, and has a place marked out for his bounds. He stands inside, and then rushes out with his hands clasped together, and endeavours to touch one of the other players, which being accomplished, he has the privilege of riding on the boy's back to his bounds again.--_Book of Sports._ In a London version the hands were held above the head, and joined by interlacing the thumbs, the fingers being outspread, the boy had to touch another while in this position.
In Shropshire it is called "Stag-warning." One boy is chosen Stag; he runs about the playground with his clasped hands held palms together in front of him, trying to tick (= touch) others. Each whom he touches joins hands with him, and they run together in an ever-lengthening chain, sweeping the playground from end to end, the boys at each end of the chain "ticking" others with their disengaged hands, till all are caught but one, who becomes the next "Stag." The Stag gives notice of his start by exclaiming--
Stag-warning, stag-warning, Come out to-morrow morning!
Stag a-rag a-rorning Very frosty morning! What I cannot catch to-night I'll catch to-morrow morning!
--Chirbury (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 523).
The game is mentioned by Mr. Patterson in his _Antrim and Down Glossary_. Northall's _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 392, gives a Warwickshire and Staffordshire version, in which the first player "ticked" or "tagged" becomes Stag when the first game is concluded, all having been caught. The words used are--
Stag aloney, My long poney, Kick the bucket over.
Halliwell (_Dictionary_) also describes the game, and indicates its origin. The boy chosen for the game clasps his hands together, and, holding them out, threatens his companions as though pursuing them with horns, and a chase ensues in which the Stag endeavours to strike one of them, who then becomes Stag in his turn. Unfortunately, Halliwell does not, in this instance, give his authority, but if it is taken from the players themselves, it is a sufficient account of the origin of the game, apart from the evidence of the name. All this group of games is evidently to be traced to one original, though in different places the detail of the game has developed somewhat differently. It evidently comes down from the time when stags were hunted not so much for sport as for food.