Summary

Game name (and type): 'Sardines' (hiding game)
Alternative type: counting-out rhymes, language play

Handwritten description of the hiding game 'Sardines' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Wendy Garnaut, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Garnaut states that she plays 'Sardines' at home. To establish 'he', she writes that players stand in a ring as one child recites a rhyme, providing the following example: 'A little green snake ate too much cake and so he got a belly ache.' She states that the last player in the ring, presumably the player corresponding with the last word of the rhyme, is pronounced 'he'. 'He' hides, while the other players count to one hundred. As the players locate 'he', they join him in his hiding place. The last player to discover the hiding position must hide in the subsequent game.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games 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 pencil on lined paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

More Information