Summary

Game name (and type): 'Hidy' (Hidey) (hiding game)
Alternative types: chasing games, counting-out rhyme, language play

Handwritten description of the hiding game 'Hidy' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Ron Snelgar, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Snelgar describes 'Hidy' as a game requiring a minimum of two players and a home place, noting that it is not played very often at school. He writes that a counting-out rhyme is used to select 'he', who counts while the other players hide. 'He' searches for the hidden players, racing them back to the home place on discovery. Snelgar notes that the first player to be captured by 'he' must assume the role of finder in the following game. Players who reach the home place before 'he' are safe, re-joining when the next game begins.

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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