LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

games. An especial effort has been made to secure games for particular conditions. Among these may be mentioned very strenuous games for older boys or men; games for the schoolroom; games for large numbers; new gymnasium games such as Nine Court Basket Ball and Double Corner Ball; games which make use of natural material such as stones, pebbles, shells, trees, flowers, leaves, grasses, holes in the sand or earth, and diagrams drawn on the ground.

      The description, classification, and arrangement of the games have been made with the steadfast purpose of putting them into the most workable form, easily understood, with suggestions for getting the most sport and playing value out of them, and with means of ready reference to any class of games for use under any of the conditions mentioned. The series of indexes which accomplish this last-mentioned purpose make it possible to classify the games in many different ways, sparing the reader the necessity for hunting through much unrelated material to find that suited to his conditions. The index for schools is essentially a graded course of study in games.

      The ball games requiring team play have been described according to an analytic scheme not before used for the class of games given in the present volume, which makes it possible to locate at a glance information about the laying out of the ground, the number, assignment, and duties of players, the object of the game, rules and points of play, fouls, and score. The various kinds of balls are described with official specifications. Diagrams for all kinds of games have been supplied unsparingly, wherever it seemed possible to make clearer the understanding of a game by such means, and pictorial illustration has been used where diagrams were inadequate. The music for all singing games is given with full accompaniment. Suggestions for the teaching and conduct of games are given, with directions for floor formations. Means of counting out and choosing sides and players are described, and one section is devoted to forfeits.

      Under each of the main divisions chosen—miscellaneous active games, quiet games, singing games, bean-bag games, and ball games—the material has been arranged in alphabetic order to facilitate ready reference, although a general alphabetic index is appended. In short, the book aims to bring together all related material and every available device for making it readily accessible and easily understood.

      Original research SOURCES AND NATURE OF MATERIAL.—The material in this volume, aside from that accumulated through a long experience in the teaching and supervision of games, has been collected through (1) special original research, and (2) bibliographical research. The original research has been made among the foreign population of New York City, where practically the entire world is accessible, and in other sections of the United States. This has resulted in some entirely new games that the writer has not found elsewhere in print. From among these may be mentioned the Greek Pebble Chase, the Russian Hole Ball, the Scotch Keep Moving, the Danish Slipper Slap, and, from our own country, among others, Chickadee-dee from Long Island, and Hip from New Jersey. Entirely new ways of playing games previously recorded have been found, amounting not merely to a variation but to a wholly new form. Such is the method here given for playing Babylon, a form gathered from two different Scotch sources. Another example is the game of Wolf, for which additional features have been found that add greatly to its playing value, especially the rule whereby the wolf, when discovered by the sheep who are hunting for him, shall take a jump toward the sheep before his chase after them begins; or, should he discover them first, the requirement that they take three steps toward him before the chase begins. Such points add greatly to the sport of a game, and with the spoken formulas that accompany them form a rich find for both student and player.

      One may not well refer to the original research without mention of the charm of the task itself. It has been one of the sunniest, happiest lines possible to follow, attended invariably with smiling faces and laughter on the part of old or young, native or foreign, the peasant people or those more sophisticated.

      Bibliographical research and results

      The bibliographical research has covered a wide field. Heretofore the principal sources in English for the collector of games have been the invaluable and scholarly folklore compilations of Mr. William Wells Newell (Songs and Games of American Children) and Mrs. Alice B. Gomme (Traditional Games in the Dictionary of British Folk Lore). The earlier British collection by Strutt (Sports and Pastimes of the English People) has also been a source of great value. In the United States considerable collecting and translating of games have from time to time been done by the physical training magazine, Mind and Body. For all modern athletic games an invaluable service has been rendered by Messrs. A. G. Spalding and Brothers in the publication, since 1892, of the Spalding Athletic Library, under the direction of Mr. A. G. Spalding and Mr. James E. Sullivan. The author is greatly indebted to all of these sources. In addition, hundreds of volumes have been consulted in many fields including works of travel, reports of missionaries, etc. This has resulted in games from widely scattered sources, including European countries, the Orient, the Arctic regions, and the North American Indians. While in such a mass of material there are some games that are found in almost all countries, so that one is continually meeting old friends among them, a very considerable harvest of distinctive material has been gathered, eloquent of environment, temperamental, or racial traits. Such, among many others, are the Japanese Crab Race; the Chinese games of Forcing the City Gates, and Letting Out the Doves; the Korean games with flowers and grasses; the North American Indian games of Snow Snake and Rolling Target; and the poetic game of the little Spanish children about the Moon and Stars, played in the boundaries marked by sunshine and shadow.

      Standard Material

      But the object of the book has been by no means to present only novel material. There is an aristocracy of games, classic by all the rights of tradition and popular approval, without which a collection would be as incomplete as would an anthology of English ballads without Robin Hood, Sally in our Alley, or Drink to me only with thine Eyes. These standard games are amply represented, mingled in the true spirit of American democracy with strangers from foreign lands and the new creations of modern athletic practice.

      Local color and humor in games

      The games, old and new, are full of that intimation of environment which the novelist calls local color, often containing in the name alone a comprehensive suggestiveness as great as that of an Homeric epithet. Thus our familiar Cat and Mouse appears in modern Greece as Lamb and Wolf; and the French version of Spin the Platter is My Lady's Toilet, concerned with laces, jewels, and other ballroom accessories instead of our prosaic numbering of players. These changes that a game takes on in different environments are of the very essence of folklore, and some amusing examples are to be found in our own country. For instance, it is not altogether surprising to find a game that is known under another name in the North called, in Southern States, "Ham-Ham-Chicken-Ham-Bacon!" The author found a good example of folklore-in-the-making in the game usually known as "Run, Sheep, Run!" in which a band of hidden players seek their goal under the guidance of signals shouted by a leader. As gathered in a Minnesota town, these signals consisted of colors—red, blue, green, etc. This same game was found in the city environment of New York under the name of Oyster Sale, and the signals had become pickles, tomatoes, and other articles strongly suggestive of a delicatessen store. The butterfly verse for Jumping Rope is obviously another late production of the folklore spirit.

      The lover of childish humor will find many delightful examples of it among the games, as where little Jacky Lingo feeds bread and butter to the sheep (Who Goes Round My Stone Wall?); or the Mother, trying the Old Witch's apple pie, discovers that "It tastes exactly like my child Monday!" The tantalizing "nominies" or "dares," as in Fox and Geese, and Wolf, and the ways in which players are trapped into false starts, as in Black Tom, are also highly amusing.

      PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION.—In the selection of material for this work, a marked distinction has been made between games, on the one hand, and, on the other, the unorganized play and constructive activities included in many books of children's games. While the term "play" includes games, so that we "play games," it applies also to informal play activities, such as a child's "playing horse," "playing house," or playing in the sand. In such unorganized play there are no fixed rules, no formal mode of procedure, and generally, no climax to be achieved. The various steps are usually spontaneous, not predetermined, and are subject to individual

Скачать книгу