No. 76 Robin’s Alive
This celebrated game was formerly much played in New England during the winter evenings. A stick was lighted, and passed from hand to hand. It was an object to transfer it as quickly as possible; but each player, before handing it to his neighbor, must repeat the rhyme—
The bird is alive, and alive like to be,
If it dies in my hand you may back-saddle me.
Or else, “Robin’s alive,” etc.
The “back-saddling” consisted in depositing the person, in whose hand the light went out, upon the back on the floor, and afterwards piling upon him (or her) chairs and other furniture.
Another formula is given in the “Girls’ Own Book:”
“Robin’s alive, and alive he shall be; if he dies in my hand, my mouth shall be bridled, my back shall be saddled, and I be sent home to the king’s Whitehall.”
When the light expired it was said: “Robin is dead, and dead he shall be; he has died in your hand, and your mouth shall be bridled, your back shall be saddled, to send you home to the king’s Whitehall.”
This game is played all over Europe with similar formulas; but we are not aware that the “back-saddling” feature has been practised out of England and America. The person in whose possession the light is extinguished usually pays forfeit.
It has been suggested, with plausibility, that the sport is connected with an ancient rite: namely, the races of torch-bearers, which formed part of certain festal ceremonies, and in which the courier in whose hands the torch went out was a loser. Such contests are repeatedly alluded to by classic writers; but their exact conduct is involved in some obscurity. In such a race, at Athens, the torch was kindled on the altar of Prometheus, and handed to the runner, whose duty it was to pass it, while still alight, to a second, and so on. This ceremony has suggested a celebrated line to Lucretius, who compares the flying ages to “runners who pass from one to another the torch of life.”