Witches
Source:
What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games And Pastimes
Category:
OUTDOOR GAMES FOR GIRLS
"Witches" is a home-made game played thus, according to the
description of E. H.--"One player is made witch. A good spot is
chosen for home, and here the others wait until the witch has had time
to hide. The idea is that the country round is preyed upon by the
witch, home being the only place where she has no power. The rest of
the children have to explore the witch's country without being caught
by her. It must be a point of honor to leave no suspicious place
unexamined. The child chosen for witch need not be a particularly fast
runner, but she must be clever and a good dodger. Any one that the
witch succeeds in touching is at once turned to stone and may not stir
except as she is moved about by the witch, who chooses a spot to stand
her victim in as far removed from home as possible. The stone can be
released only by some other child finding her and dragging her safely
home, where the spell ceases to act. But until actually home the
victim remains stone, so that if the rescuer is surprised by the witch
and lets go her hold, the stone has to stand where she is left and is
so recovered by the witch. The witch must not, of course, guard her
prisoners too closely. She ought to try and intercept the rescuers on
their way home, rather than spring upon them in the act of finding the
stone. But each time the stone is recovered the witch may place her in
a more inaccessible spot, so that it becomes more and more dangerous
to release her. Sometimes at the end of the game all the children are
turned to stone in different parts of the garden, but sometimes, of
course, a swift runner will outstrip the witch and drag the victim
safely home. A clever witch acts the part too--appearing and
disappearing suddenly, prowling about in a crouching attitude, making
gestures of hate and rage, and so on."
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