Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium

by Jessie H. Bancroft

Indoors; out of doors.

This is one of the traditional dramatic games.

One player is chosen to be market man and another buyer; the rest of the players are chickens; they stoop down in a row and clasp their hands under their knees. The buyer approaches the market man and asks, "Have you any chickens for sale?" The market man answers, "Yes, plenty; will you walk around and try them?" Whereupon the buyer goes up to different chickens and tests them by laying over the head his clasped hands, palms downward and pressing inward. The buyer pretends to be dissatisfied with some of the chickens, saying, "This one is too tough," "This one is too old," "This one is too fat," etc., until at last he finds one that suits him, the chickens being supposed to go through this ordeal without smiling.

When a chicken is found that appears to be satisfactory, the buyer and the market man take him by the arms, one on either side, he still remaining in his first position with hands clasped under the knees, and swing him forward and backward three times. Should he stand this test without loosening his own grasp, he is supposed to be all right, and the buyer leads him off to the opposite side of the playground, or home. The game continues until all of the chickens are sold. Any chicken that smiles, or whose arms give way in the swinging test, must pay a forfeit, all of the forfeits being redeemed at the close of the game. Where there are more than ten players, there should be two or more buyers and sellers.

This game is played in various countries: in England as a "Sale of Honey Pots," in China as a "Fruit Sale," etc. The version here given is from Italy.

CHICKIDY HAND

5 to 30 or more players.

Playground; gymnasium.

One player is chosen to be It, and stands near a post with the fingers of his hands interlocked. The other players, each clasping his own hands in the same way, crowd around the post and touch it with the clasped hands. The one who is It counts ten, whereupon the players all run, the one who is It trying to tag any of them. None of the players may unclasp their hands until they are tagged, whereupon they are prisoners and clasp hands with It, forming a line which thereafter is the tagging line, though only the original It may tag the other players. The game is a contest between the tagging line, which tries to recruit and retain its numbers, and the free players, who try (1) to avoid being captured for the tagging line, and (2) to reduce the tagging line by breaking through it; but the players in the line must resist this. Each time that the line is broken, the one of the two players (whose hands were parted) who stands toward the head of the line is dropped out of the game. A free player may not be tagged after he has thrown himself upon (touched) a pair of hands that he is trying to part. The last player caught by the tagging line is the winner and becomes It for the next game.