The object of the following notes is to exhibit, in a clear manner, the
extent of the correspondence between the games of American children
and those belonging to children in other countries. This volume is not
intended to include all games of children, but (with some exceptions
in favor of certain amusements which possess interest as folk-lore)
only such as are played with words or quaint formulas. Of games of this
class, we find in the collections very few known to children in Great
Britain, and possessing European diffusion, which are not represented
in this series by independent American versions (see No. 160, note,
end). With these exceptions, the British game-formulas to which
American usage does not offer equivalents are local and of trifling
interest. The references given below may, therefore, be considered as a
comparative account of English children's games in general.
The coincidence which this comparison shows to exist between
English and German games is very close. Taking three German
collections--belonging respectively to Switzerland (Rochholz), to
Suabia (Meier), and to Schleswig-Holstein (Handelmann)--and leaving
out of account songs and ballads, we have about eighty games played
with rhymes or formulas. Of this number, considering only cases of
obvious identity, we estimate that forty-five have equivalents in the
present series, and thirty-three are not so paralleled. But of the
latter class, six are known to have been played in Great Britain, while
thirteen others appear to be variations of types represented in this
collection. Of the small number remaining, few seem to be ancient, it
being impossible to point out more than three or four really curious
games which are not played also in an English form. This agreement
cannot be explained by inheritance from a common stock, a theory which
research has also discredited in other branches of folk-lore. The
relationship is only a degree less near in other countries; thus, in a
collection of Spanish games belonging to Catalonia (Maspons y Labrós),
we find that, out of thirty-eight games, twenty-five have English
equivalents.