No. 108 Blind-man’s Buff
A blindfolded player is led into the centre of a room, taken by the shoulders, and turned about three times, after which he must catch somebody to replace him.
For this initiation there is in the Middle States a rhyme:
“How many horses have you in your father’s stable?”
“Three; black, white, and gray.”
“Turn about, and turn about, and catch whom you may.”104
The English name, “Hoodman-blind,” is derived from the manner of blindfolding formerly in use. When caps were worn which could be drawn at will over the face, the caps, reversed so as to cover the countenance, formed the mask.
This game belongs to all ages and most countries, and is known by many different names, frequently taken from animals, for example: “Blind Cow” in Germany; “Blind Goat” in Sweden; “Blind Mouse” in South Germany and Servia; “Blind Hen” in Spain; “Blind Fly,” or “Blind Cat,” in Italy. To the English name, “Blind-man’s Buff,” correspond the Polish “Blind Old Man,” and the Norwegian “Blind Thief.” In these titles a mythologic allusion is probably contained, which is quite clear in the Scotch “Belly-blind,”105 the latter name representing a malicious demon. Thus again appears the conception of a supernatural adversary so common in games of pursuit.
A familiar variation makes this a ring-game. The blindfolded person stands in the centre, with a staff, while the ring circles about him. When he strikes the floor three times, the ring must pause. The person in whose direction he points must grasp the staff, and utter some sound, disguising the voice as much as possible. The first must then guess the name from the sound. In New York this form of the game is called “Peggy in the Ring,” and the request is “to squeak.”
In Cincinnati the game is also played in a dark room, without bandaging the eyes, and is then called “Devil in the Dark.”
Another variety, also commonly played without blindfolding, goes by the name of “Still Pond,” or “Still Palm.” The child who is “it,” counting up to ten, says,
Still proving,
No moving.
All now keep their places. The catcher must guess by the touch the name of his captive.
The game of which we write is described by Pollux, as played seventeen hundred years since in various forms, all of which are still familiar: “The game of ‘Muinda,’ when any one, closing his eyes, cries, ‘Look out!’ and whomsoever he catches he makes him close his eyes instead; or when, keeping his eyes shut, he seeks after the children who have hidden until he catches them; or else he closes his eyes while the others touch him, and if anybody gives a clue himself, he speaks out and guesses till he gets it right.”
When a bandage was used, the game was called the “Brazen Fly” (we may suppose a gaudy species of insect, from the zigzag motion, as boys run when chasing butterflies), and is thus described by the same author: “The eyes of a boy having been bound with a bandage, he goes round, saying, ‘I shall chase the brazen fly;’ but the others, answering, ‘You will chase him but not catch him,’ hit him with whips of papyrus, till he catches one of them.” These papyrus whips were the equivalent of our knotted handkerchiefs.