What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes Part 8

As a change from ordinary letter-writing, "Hieroglyphics" are amusing and interesting to make. The best explanation is an example, such as is given on pages 52 and 53, the subject being two verses from a favorite nursery song.

Pictures and t.i.tles

Each player draws on the upper half of the paper an historical scene, whether from history proper or from family history, and appends the t.i.tle, writing it along the bottom of the paper and folding it over.

The drawings are then pa.s.sed on and each player writes above the artist's fold (or on another sheet of paper) what he thinks they are meant to represent, and folds the paper over what he has written. In the accompanying example the t.i.tle at the bottom of the paper is what the draughtsman himself wrote; the others are the other players'

guesses.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Various Descriptions by the Players

The Abbot of Christchurch, near Bournemouth, surveys the scaffolding of the abbey.

The end of the Paris Exhibition.

An old man coming back to the home of his childhood, looks across the river, where a duck is swimming, to the dilapidated cathedral and town which represent the stately piles he remembered.

The building of the Ark.

The Artist's Description

The Last Man surveying the ruins of the Crystal Palace.]

WRITING GAMES

Many of the games under this heading look harder than they really are.

But the mere suggestion of a writing game is often enough to frighten away timid players who mistrust their powers of composition--although the result can be as funny when these powers are small as when they are considerable. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

Simple Acrostics

There are "Simple Acrostics" and "Double Acrostics." The simple ones are very simple. When the players are all ready a word is chosen by one of them, either from thought or by looking at a book and taking the first promising one that occurs. Perhaps it is "govern." Each player then puts the letters forming "govern" in a line down the paper, and the object of the game is to find, in a given time, words beginning with each of those letters. Thus, at the end of time, one player might have--

G ravy O range V iolet E sther R obin N umbskull

The players then describe their words in turn, one letter going the round before the next is reached, and from these descriptions the words have to be guessed, either by any player who likes or by the players in turn. The player whose paper we have quoted might describe his words like this: G---- "Something that makes hot beef nice"; O---- "A fruit"; V---- "A flower"; E---- "A girl's name"; R---- "A bird"; and N---- "A name for a silly person." If any one else has the same word neither of you can score it, and it is therefore important to seek for the most unlikely words.

Another way of playing "Simple Acrostics" is to insist on each word being the same length. Thus "govern" might be filled in by one player thus:--

G rave O ddly V erse E arth R ebel N inth

Double Acrostics

In "Double Acrostics" the game is played in precisely the same way, except that the letters of the word, after having been arranged in a line down the paper, are then arranged again in a line up the paper, so that the first letter is opposite the last, and the last opposite the first. Thus:--

G N O R V E E V R O N G

The players have then to fill in words beginning and ending with the letters as thus arranged. One paper might come out thus:--

G rai N O rde R V ersatil E E ... V R apall O N othin G

This word is rather a hard one on account of the E and V. As a rule, words of only three letters are not allowed in "Acrostics," nor are plurals. That is to say, if the word has to end in "S," one must not simply add "S" to an ordinary word, such as "grooms" for G----S, but find a word ending naturally in "S," such as "Genesis."

It is not necessary to invert the same word in order to get letters for the ends of the words. Two words of equal length can be chosen and arranged side by side. Thus (but this is almost too difficult an example):--

D K I I C P K L E I N N S G

"Acrostics" may be made more difficult and interesting by giving them a distinct character. Thus, it may be decided that all the words that are filled in must be geographical, or literary, or relating to flowers.

Fives

"Fives" is a game which is a test also of one's store of information.

A letter is chosen, say T, and for a given time, ten minutes perhaps, the players write down as many names of animals beginning with T as they can think of. The first player then reads his list, marking those words that no one else has and crossing off all that are also on other players' papers. Then the names of vegetables (including flowers, trees, and fruit) are taken; then minerals; then persons; and then places. The player who has most marks wins the game.

A variety of this game is to take a long word, say "extraordinary,"

and within a given time to see how many smaller words can be made from it, such as tax, tin, tea, tear, tare, tray, din, dray, dairy, road, rat, raid, and so on.

Lists

"Lists" is a variety of "Fives." Paper is provided, and each player in turn calls out something which the whole company write down. Thus, suppose there are five players and you decide to go round three times: the first may say a river; the second, a doctor; the third, a complaint; the fourth, a play; the fifth, a State in the Union; the first again, a musical instrument; the second again, a poet; and so on, until the fifteen things are all written down. Each paper will then have the same list of fifteen things upon it. One of the company then opens a book at random, and chooses, say, the first letter of the third word in the first line. Perhaps it is T. For a given time each player has to supply his list with answers beginning with T. At the call of time one of the papers may present this appearance:--

A river Tees A doctor. Mr. Treves A complaint Tic Doloreux A play Timon of Athens A state in the Union Tennessee A musical instrument Trombone A poet Tennyson A flower Trefoil A mineral Tin A lake Tanganyika A tree Tulip A country Turkey An author Trollope An artist Tadema A preacher Talmage

Each player in turn reads his list aloud, strikes off those words that others also have, and puts a mark against the rest. The specimen list here given is too simple to be called a good one. Players should reject the first thing that comes into their thoughts, in favor of something less natural.

Buried Names

The first thing for the players to do is to decide what kind of name they will bury. The best way is to call out something in turn. Thus, if there are four players they may decide to bury the name of an author, a girl, a town, and a river. Each player writes these down and a fixed time is given for burial, which consists in writing a sentence that shall contain the name somewhere spelled rightly but spread over two words, or three if possible. At the end of the time the sentences are read aloud in turn, while the others guess. Of course, the whole game may be given up to burying only one kind of name, but variety is perhaps better. Examples are given:--

An author: I like to keep the y_ew in g_ood order.

A girl: The boy was cru_el, laz_y and obstinate.

A town: Clothes that are _new have n_o need of brus.h.i.+ng.

A river: To see spoil_t ham es_pecially annoys me.

It is permissible to bury the name in the middle of one longer word, but it is better to spread it over two or three. Perhaps the best example of a buried English town is this: "The Queen of She_ba sings to ke_ep her spirits up." This is good, because the sentence is natural, because of the unusual number of words that are made use of in the burial, and because in reading it aloud the sound of the buried town is not suggested.

Letters and Telegrams