Oats Peas Beans

Source: Games For The Playground, Home, School And Gymnasium
Category: SINGING GAMES



_6 to 60 players._

_Indoors; out of doors._


Oats, peas, beans, and barley grows,
Oats, peas, beans, and barley grows.
Nor you nor I nor nobody knows
How oats, peas, beans, and barley grows.

Thus the farmer sows his seed,
Thus he stands and takes his ease,
Stamps his foot and claps his hands,
And turns around to view his lands.

A-waiting for a partner,
A-waiting for a partner,
So open the ring and choose one in,
Make haste and choose your partner.

Now you're married, you must obey.
You must be true to all you say.
You must be kind, you must be good,
And keep your wife in kindling wood.

The players form a ring, clasping hands, and circle about one of their
number who has been chosen to stand in the center. They all sing the
first four lines, when they drop hands, and each player goes through
the motions indicated by the words: sowing the seed with a broad sweep
of the arm as though scattering seed from the hand; standing erect and
folding the arms; stamping the foot; clapping the hands; and at the
end of the verse turning entirely around. They then clasp hands again
and circle entirely around, singing


Waiting for a partner,
Waiting for a partner,

standing still for the last two lines


So open the ring
And choose one in.

On these words the one in the center chooses one from the circle as a
partner. The player who was first in the center then returns to the
circle, and the one chosen as partner remains in the center while the
game is repeated.

If large numbers are playing, four players may stand in the center
instead of one, and in that case, of course, four partners will be
chosen. This form of playing the game has traditional sanction, and at
the same time adapts itself nicely to the large numbers that often
have to be provided for under modern conditions of playing.

This is one of the games that Mr. Newell calls "world-old and
world-wide." It is found in France, Italy, Spain, Germany,
etc., was played by Froissart in the fourteenth century, and by
Rabelais in the fifteenth. The game is supposed to have had its
source in a formula sung at the sowing of grain to propitiate
the earth gods and to promote and quicken the growth of crops.
Mrs. Gomme notes that the turning around and bowing to the
fields and lands, coupled with pantomimic actions of harvest
activities, are very general in the history of sympathetic
magic among primitive peoples, from which doubtless came the
custom of spring and harvest festivals.

Mrs. Gomme also points out that the choosing of the partner
indicates the custom of courtship and marriage at these sowing
and harvest gatherings.

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