Also known as '
mumblety-peg', this was an old children's game from at least the
19th Century. It involved dropping a knife onto the ground in a variety of special ways, the aim being to ensure that the knife stuck into the
ground, blade down.
The name comes from the fact that, in earlier versions of the game, anybody whose knife failed to penetrate the soft, yielding earth would be made to pull a peg out of the ground with his or her (usually his) teeth. Really.
Nowadays children shun such simple pleasures, preferring instead such diverse pursuits as computer games, downloading porn, and crack cocaine.