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A player on the other side now tries to guess the name of the one thus chosen. If he guesses wrong, then a new choice must be made by his own side, but if he guesses correctly, the child in question must go over as "dead" to the other side. The side which are all killed with the exception of the nang, loses the game, which then begins afresh.
The cock on board ship.A variation of the above is to be found in the mumanòʾ-manòʾ kapay or meukapay-kapay ("the cock on board ship" or "ship game"). In this also two sides, each under a nang, take their stand opposite one another. Between them is a mat, on which sits one of the children with his face covered with a kerchief. The nang of the other side comes up to her opponent and asks "what ship is that"? She replies, say, "English". "What is the cargo". "Cocoanut shells". "What else"? "A blind cock". "Let him crow then"! Now the child crows three times as requested, and then the nang of the opposite side must guess who it is. The game then proceeds in the same way as the meuraja-raja biséʾ.
Game of child-stealing.Meusugōt-sugōt[1] or meuchòʾ-chòʾ aneuʾ (child-stealing) is played by girls and also by little boys[2].
All the players but one stand in a row one behind the other, each holding on to the back of the garment of the one in front of her. The foremost is called the nang and must try and prevent the children from being "stolen" by the one who is not in the row and who plays the part of thief. The enemy however always succeeds in the end, in spite of the efforts of the "mother" in touching the children one by one and so compelling them to quit the line as being "dead".
Games with kemiri-nuts.Kemiri-nuts (bòh krèh) are used in various games in Acheh as well as in neighbouring countries[3]. Two sides contend, usually for a wager as to who will first split the other's nut with his (pupòʾ bòh krèh)[4]. There is also a kind of marble-game (Ach. mupadōʾ), in which the bòh krèh is used.
The most favourite pastime however both with young and old is
- ↑ This word properly means, "combing each other", and is applied to this game simply because the children who play in it take their places one behind the other, as women are wont to do when combing each other's hair.
- ↑ Main sesel or kachau kueh (vide Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 494) appears to be the Malay equivalent. (Translator).
- ↑ Schoolboys in some parts of Great Britain and Ireland play a similar "hacking" game with horse-chestnuts. (Translator).
- ↑ See the Tijdschrift Teysmannia for 1893, p. 786 et seq.
