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CHILDREN'S GAMES 475 |
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significance of the conclusions, but when brought together and compared one with another these conclusions become more significant. The fact that marriage custom is preserved in a given form becomes of immense value when it is found to have been preserved in many games. I shall not go further into the games of skill and chance, but confine myself to the important class of dramatic games.
By the dramatic game I mean a play or amusement which consists of words sung or said by the players, accompanied by certain pantomimic actions which accord with the words used, or, as I prefer to put it, of certain definite and settled actions performed by the players to indicate certain meanings, of which the words are only a further illustration.
To take the method of play first, I have found five distinct and different methods :—
(i) The line form of game, played by the children being divided into two sides of about an equal number on each side, with a space of ground of about eight or ten feet between the two lines. Each line joins hands, and advances and retires in turn while singing or saying their parts.
(2) The circle form, played by the children joining hands and forming a circle, and all walking or dancing round together when singing the words.
(3) The individual form, where the children take separate characters and act a little play.
(4) The arch form, in which two children clasp each other's hands, hold their arms high, and so form a kind of arch, beneath which all the other players run in single file.
(5) Winding-up form, in which the players, clasping hands, wind round another player until all are wedged closely together, and then unwind again, generally assuming a serpentine form in so doing.
It will be well, in the first place, to arrange the games played under each of these methods :—
Games Played in Line Form (with singing a?id action).
Babity Bowster. Here comes a Lusty Wooer.
Green Grass. Here comes one Virgin on her
Hark the Robbers (one form). Knee. . ■ |
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