Читать книгу Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun - Various - Страница 29

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To do justice to this game it will be necessary for the players to call to mind all they have ever read or heard about the various modes of travelling in all the four quarters of the globe, because every little detail will be of use.

The business commences by one of the company announcing that he intends starting on a journey, when he is asked whether he will go by sea or by land. To which quarter of the globe? Will he go north, south, east, or west? and last of all—What conveyance does he intend to use?

After these four questions have been answered, the first player is called upon to name the spot he intends to visit.

Mountain travelling may be described, the many ingenious methods of which are so well known to visitors to Italy and Switzerland.

The wonderful railway up the Righi need not be forgotten; mule travelling, arm-chairs carried by porters, and the dangerous-looking ladders which the Swiss peasants mount and remount so fearlessly at all times of the year, in order to scale the awful precipices, will each be borne in mind. In the cold regions the sledges drawn by reindeer may be employed, or the Greenland dogs, not forgetting the tremendous skates, that have the appearance of small canoes, used by the Laplanders; and also the stilts, which are used by some of the poor French people who live in the west of their country. Indeed, it is amazing how many different methods of conveyance have been contrived at one time or another for the benefit of us human beings.

In Spain and other places there are the diligences; in Arabia the camels; in China the junks; at Venice the gondolas.

Then, to come home, we have balloons, bicycles, wheelbarrows, perambulators, and all kinds of carriages, so that no one need be long in deciding what mode of travelling he shall for the time adopt. As soon as the four questions have been answered, should the first player be unable to name what country he will visit he must pay a forfeit, and the opportunity is passed on to his neighbour.

This game may be made intensely amusing, as will be proved by trial; and at the same time a very great amount of instruction may be derived from it.