Maize-cobs (_zikonyo_) are also used in the game of _ponyana zikonyo_, or throwing these missiles at each other; and in that of _tamangitsana_ (literally ‘making run,’ in which one side pretend to be Angoni, and carry shields). There is a very popular game called _chiwewe_, which is a somewhat original exercise with a skipping-rope. One player squats down and whirls the cord, weighted at one end, round his head, so as to describe round himself a circle of two or three yards in diameter, while the others jump over it; the one who fails to clear it has to take his place in the middle. [Illustration: 1. “MCHOMBWA” OR “MSUO” 2. NYANJA BALL-GAME] Children build little houses of grass, and otherwise imitate the proceedings of grown-up people; the boys make themselves little bows, with arrows of grass-stalks (sometimes these are tipped with sharp bits of bamboo and strong enough to kill small birds with), and girls grind soft stones to powder, pretending they are _ufa_, and carry maize-cobs on their backs for babies. The little Yao girls have a kind of wooden doll called a _mwali_ (‘girl’): there is no attempt at representing the human figure; in fact, the thing is more like a ninepin than anything else, except that both ends are rounded, so that it will not stand up, and one of them, by way of suggesting the head, is covered with small scarlet seeds, fitted on like a wig. Cat’s cradle is played, though I am not certain how, and there is a variety of guessing games, called ‘tricks’ (_zinyao_), such as _chagwa_, which is something like ‘hunt-the-slipper’; and another where ‘three arrows or three sticks are set, and one guesses which is chosen—if he guess wrongly, his companions laugh and beat him in fun with the sticks.’ An elementary kind of swing is sometimes extemporised by means of a convenient creeper hanging from the branch of a large tree; but I think I have also seen one made with a rope.