Summary

Game type: 'How Many Stones in the Hand?' (guessing game)
Alternative types: party games, seeking games, games with found objects, play with props/equipment

Handwritten description of the guessing game 'How Many Stones in the Hand?' compiled by Rosinor Fazio, a student at East Fremantle Government Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard between 1954-1955. Fazio describes 'How Many Stones in the Hand?' as game played by pairs at parties, which requires 10 stones for each player. To play, one child hides some stones in their left hand, the quantity of which their opponent must guess. Fazio explains that if the player guesses the correct number, they receive the stones. If incorrect, they must make up the difference with their own stones. The game continues until one player holds all the stones.

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 blue ink on lined paper. Features text written on one side only.

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