Читать книгу Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun - Various - Страница 42

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To play this game well it is necessary that there should be a good spokesman in the company, who will find ample opportunity for his gift of eloquence.

Simple as the game may appear to be, it is one that is generally played with very great success.

Each member of the party wishing to take part in it must place the right hand upon the left arm.

The leader then intimates that in the discourse with which he intends to favour his friends, whenever he mentions a creature that can fly, every right hand is to be raised and fluttered in the air in imitation of a bird flying. At the mention of all animals that cannot fly, the hands remain stationary. It is, of course, needless to say that the leader will do his best to have the hands raised when other animals are mentioned as well as flying ones, in order that a good number of forfeits may be collected.

All being in readiness, he will begin in a style something like the following:—

"One lovely morning in June I sallied forth to take the air. The honey-suckle and roses were shedding a delicious perfume, the butterflies and bees were flitting from flower to flower, the cuckoo's note resounded through the groves, and the lark's sweet trill was heard overhead. It seemed, indeed, that all the birds of the air (here all hands must be raised) were vieing with each other as to whose song should be the loudest and the sweetest, when," &c.

Thus the game is carried on until as many forfeits as are deemed desirable have been extracted from the company.