Ring the Bull

“This amusing game requires more care and delicacy of touch than at first seems to be the case. The apparatus of the game is very simple, consisting of a bull’s head painted on a board, with a hook in its nose and another on each horn. In the top of the board is fixed a horizontal rod, to the end of which is suspended a ring by a piece of string. The players stand in succession in front of the bull, take the ring and try to fling it so that it shall be caught on the nook in the bull’s nose. Each player has nine throws, and he who succeeds the greatest number of times wins the game. It is tolerably easy to throw the ring on the hook, but not easy to throw it so that it shall stay there, and the ‘knack’ of the game consists in throwing it with just sufficient force to reach the hook. In another modification of the game the string is lengthened to twelve or fifteen feet, and has a slip-noose at the end. The other end of the string is not fastened to the end of the horizontal rod, but held in the left hand, while with the right the player tries to throw the loop over the two hooks in the bull’s horns. If he can catch them both he scores two, and if he catches only one of them, he scores one. Each player has six throws.” — Thomas Sheppard Meek

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