Summary

Game name (and type): 'Poison Tiggy' (chasing game)
Alternative types: running games, counting-out rhymes, language play

Handwritten description of the chasing game 'Poison Tiggy' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Dawn Penn, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Penn describes 'Poison Tiggy' as a game which is usually played at home by any number of players. Players recite a counting-out rhyme to select the chaser 'he', who counts to twenty before chasing the other players as they run. Penn explains that if 'he' catches a player, he must hold onto the child as he continues to run after other players.

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.

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