"quorum" -- early 19th C children's game

[Benjamin Barrett]

Here are two sources for Hawaiian games. BB

1. A list of Hawaiian games can be found at http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Culin/Hawaii1899/games/index.html.

Among these is 68. Pla-pi-o - PRISONER-PLAY, TAG

"The one who is 'it' (a-ku-a) is determined by counting out. He chases the others, and the one first tagged becomes a-ku-a in turn. Plaa is the English word "play," Hawaiian pa-a-ni."

Another is 70. 70. Po-ai-pu-ni - Blind Man's Buff.

"Children clasp hands in a ring, within which one stands blindfolded. The children dance around, and as they dance the ma-ka-po or 'blind-man' catches one and then tries to guess who it is. Ellis says that in Tahititupaurupauru, a kind of blind-man's-buff, was a favorite juvenile pastime, and Williams mentions blind-man's-buff in Fiji."


2. The American Anthropologist has a lot of games. http://tinyurl.com/ydcwb3z

One selection from this page is:
HAWAIIAN GAMES
Ki-ni-ho-lo, Ball.
Pe-ku-M-ni-po-pOy Ball-kicking.
Pa-na-pa-na-lu-a, Pit-shootiDg [sic]
Ki-o-la-o-la.
Ki-mo-ki-mo, Jackstones.
Pi-li-ka-la, Coin-betting.
Pa-na-pa-na-hu-a, Seed-
shooting.
Ki-o-la-o-la-la-au, Stick-casting.
Ki-no-a, Hop-scotch.
He-lu-pa-ka-hi, One-by-one-
counting.
Pi-li-li-ma, Hand-betting.
Pee-pee-a-ku-a, Ghost-hiding ;
Hide-and-seek.
He-lu-pa-a-ni, Play-counting.
Pla-pi-o, Prisoner's play.
Ho-lo-pee-a-na-lo.
Po-ai-pu-ni, Blind-man's-buff.
Pa-a-ni a-lu a-lu, Prisoner's
base.
Pa-na-i-o-le^ Mice-shooting.
Mo'ko'fnO'ko,
Ke-a-pu-a^ Arrow-throwing.
Pa-hee,
Mo-a,
Ka-hu-a-kO't,
Mai'ka.
Ki'lu.
Kt'O'la-o-la-le-na, Ring-casting.
Pu-he-fU'he-ne,
Ko'hO'kO'hO'pU'fit'U, Cocoa-
nut shell guessing.
Hu-na pO'ha-kUy Stone-hid-
ing.
Lu'lu.
Ko-na-ne,
Moo, Draughts.
Ma-nUy Fox and geese.
Jfu-ki'la-aUy Stick-drawing.
Pau-nau'we, Jackstraws.
Ko'hO'kO'hO'pu-aa^ Pig-guessing.
Pe-pa-ha-kau, Cards.

On Jan 3, 2010, at 6:59 PM, George Thompson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      "quorum" -- early 19th C children's game
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here's the name of a children's game, not in the OED.  I only have the first 2 vols. of DARE.
>
>        SPORTS IN HONOLULU.   ***  There's good old bat and ball, just the same as when we ran from the school-house to the "Common" to exercise our skill that way; and then there is something which looks much like "quorum," and "tag" too, though what is the Hawaiian for it we know not.
>        The Polynesian, December 26, 1840, p. 114 [p. 2], col. 3  [likely written by the editor, James Jackson Jarves, born in Boston in 1818; entry in the American National Biography]
>
> I don't know what the nature of the game might have been.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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