how to play “badger in the bag”

Pwyll turned up the sides of the bag, so that Gwawl was over his head in it…and as they came in, every one of Pwyll’s knights struck a blow upon the bag, and asked, “What is here?” “A Badger,” said they. And in this manner they played, each of them striking the bag, either with his foot or with a staff. And thus played they with the bag. Every one as he came in asked, “What game are you playing at thus?” “The game of Badger in the Bag,” said they. And then was the game of Badger in the Bag first played. “Lord,” said the man in the bag, “if thou wouldest but hear me, I merit not to be slain in a bag.” Said Heveydd Hen, “Lord, he speaks truth. It were fitting that thou listen to him, for he deserves not this.” “Verily,” said Pwyll, ” I will do thy counsel concerning him.”

if you ever find yourself inside a burlap sack and being whacked at by several cavalier cavaliers, the key phrase to putting an end to your lamentable situation is, “lord, i merit not to be slain in a bag.”

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source: the mabinogion, a twelfth-century collection of welsh folktales