How to amuse yourself and others : $b the American girl's handy bookBeard, Lina
General
How to amuse yourself and others : $b the American girl's handy book
Beard, Lina
Amusements -- Juvenile literature; Handicraft -- Juvenile literature
In the game they play at Washington, on the hills sloping from the
White House, the child whose egg reaches the foot of the hill in an
unbroken condition takes the one worsted in the journey down. Another
game for two is played by knocking the eggs together; each child holds
an egg firmly in his hand so that only the small end is visible, and
then the two eggs are struck against each other until one is cracked,
when the victorious player adds it to his stock, or devours it on the
spot. I would not like to state the number of eggs eaten on these
occasions, but there is a boy (_not a girl_) who once consumed fourteen
and lived to tell the tale.
Sometimes the egg which breaks another is called “the cock of one,”
and when it has broken two it is “cock of two,” and so on. When an egg
which is cock of one or more is broken, the number of trophies won by
the victim is added to the score of the conquering egg and it becomes
“cock of three” or more. Here is a game which comes from Germany, and
although in that country it is played exclusively by boys, there is no
reason why the girls should not participate in it as well. Two baskets
are necessary for this game, one large and shallow filled with soft
shavings, the other shallow also, but smaller, and filled with eggs.
The plan of the game is that one player is to run a given distance,
while another safely throws the eggs from one basket to the other, she
who completes her task first being the winner. When the baskets are
prepared, and the distance the eggs are to be thrown decided upon, the
two contestants draw lots to determine who shall run and who shall
throw. This settled, the player who throws takes the basket of eggs,
and one after another quickly tosses them the length of the course and
into the basket of shavings, which is placed on the ground at the end
of the course opposite the thrower. In Germany this basket is held by
an assistant, but anyone occupying that position might receive some
severe blows from the hard eggs thrown by unpractised hands, and it
answers the purpose just as well to place the basket on the ground.
Meantime the other player runs the distance (decided beforehand) to an
appointed goal, marks it as a proof of having touched it, and should
she succeed in returning before all the eggs are thrown, the victory
and prize are her reward; otherwise they belong to the thrower.
The game finished, a prize is presented to the successful contestant.
Should any of the eggs pitched by the thrower fail to light in the
basket, they must be gathered up and thrown again before the runner
returns, as the eggs must all be in the basket before the thrower wins
the game.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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