Summary

Game name (and type): 'Cock Fight' (miscellaneous physical play)

Handwritten description of the boy's game 'Cock Fight' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by M. Ukena, a student at Ceduna Higher Primary School, circa March 1955. Ukena describes how the game is played, providing a hand drawn diagram. The game involves pairs of boys, preferably composed of a large, strong child who carries the lighter rider on his back; any number of pairs, known as 'cocks', can be involved. The 'cocks' proceed to charge one another in an attempt to knock over the other players. The author describes the different rules governing how contact may be made with opponents.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's game written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Handwritten game description in black ink on lined paper. Features a hand drawn diagram in black ink at centre of page. Text printed on one side only.

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