in one hand, while another boy guesses the number of them in answer to the question, "Quantu lanzi" (how many lances). If he guesses rightly he wins all that are held in the hand, but if he guesses less or more he pays the difference.
In Shakespeare's day this was called "Handy Dandy," and he alludes to it under that name in a well-known passage in King Lear.
There are two other games of this same family which merit notice, as breathing the air of the fruit-bearing island. A boy cuts open an orange, or a lemon, or a medlar, and another is invited to guess rightly the number of the pips or the stones.
A boy takes in one hand two straws, one longer than the other, another boy undertakes to guess which is which, and wins or loses according to the accuracy of his clairvoyance.
Some urchins play at an infantile roulette which they call by the innocent and unpretending name of Firialoru.
In the game called acula e cruci we have the English heads or tails, now confined to boys in whose vulgar faces the board school shuts its door. In Italy the title has varied according to the coin employed, "Head or cross" in Naples, "Lily or saint" in Florence.
In L'aneddu is disguised our old friend "Hot Cockles." Here a number of boys sit round on the ground and put their hands close together. The leader holds a stone, or a nut, or a lupin, a ring, a thimble, or a small key, and passes it on to the others in silence. Then he asks one of them who has this object. If the boy guesses rightly he becomes leader, but if not he opens his hand to receive a blow (rume) in forfeit.
In A lu Spangu, three or more boys go close to a wall or some other elevation or upright. Three yards or so from this is drawn a line to serve as the limit of the play, and a hole is scooped. Then one of the boys begins the play by striking the wall with a copper coin. This copper should rebound and cross the line, and so if possible go into the hole. Then another boy follows, and if he sends his coin into the hole after passing the line he wins double (stravince). If he fails by going beyond the line he loses and leaves his copper behind him.
A li Pisuli.—This is played with marbles (pezzettini di mattone
