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Children's Games 161 |
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juvenile parties, or the home-circle, affording both fun and exercise. The word means ''hand-ball," but the method of playing is unlike any ball game of this country. The ball is a gay little affair about two inches in diameter; the players stand in a circle, and one of them takes it and throws it perpendicularly to the ground. As it rebounds she strikes it back with the open hand, and continues to do so as long as it remains within reach without moving from her position in the circle. When it moves nearer some other player, as it very soon will do, then he or she must strike it down, and so the game goes on until some person fails to hit or make it rebound, which forfeits his or her place in the circle. One after another they meet this fate until a single player remains, and thus claims kachi, or victory, and also the prize. Recently, and very appropriately selected for the purpose, was given a blooming plant of the flower of Japan—its particular variety a prize-winner at the chrysanthemum show of 1897—beautiful "Pennsylvania."
Another very merry game of Japanese origin, there called "Catching the Tail," is here more gracefully known as
"The Ribbon's End"
The players place themselves in a row, one behind the other with hands on the shoulders of the one in advance. The person selected as catcher then stands in front, but some feet away, and attempts to catch the " ribbon's end," which, as the row is graduated, is the smallest player. The entire line try to prevent this by twisting, turning, etc., without breaking the chain. If the catcher push any one in the row it is counted a foul. When the person at the end is finally captured he becomes catcher, the former one taking last place in the line. This is a noisy but, if the rules are strictly |
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