The leader of one side begins by naming a city, such as New York. Within the prescribed time the leader of the opposite side must name a city beginning with the last letter of New York, as Kalamazoo; and so it proceeds, each leader using the wits of all in his group to assist his own.
When a leader fails to respond in time, the opposite leader chooses one player from his opponent's side, and in his turn starts a new chain. The game can be played also with the names of famous persons, but this is harder.
A Memory Game.—In order to play this game successfully, it is necessary that the list of words and sentences given below be in the memory of one of the players, who acts as leader. This leader, turning to his next neighbour remarks, "One old owl." He turns to his neighbour, and gives the same formula. So it passes around the circle till it comes to the leader again, who repeats it, and adds the formula, "Two tantalising tame toads."
So again it goes around, and again, and each time the leader adds a new formula, until the whole is repeated, up to ten. It is safe to say, however, that no society will ever get that far. All who forget part of the formula are dropped from the circle. Here is the whole:
One old owl.
Two tantalising tame toads.
Three tremulous, tremendous, terrible tadpoles.
Four fat, fussy, frivolous, fantastic fellows.
Five flaming, flapping, flamingoes fishing for frogs.
Six silver-tongued, saturnine senators standing stentoriously shouting, "So-so."