3 20 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAI-. 



gives a most touching tenderness to the whole inci- 

 dent. 



Among the ancient Greeks the sport under the name of 

 kolophismos, from kolophos, a blow, was very popular. 

 From them it passed on to the Romans, among whom 

 it speedily established itself; and by them in turn it was 

 handed on to the western countries which they had con- 

 quered. During the Middle Ages it was universally 

 practised under the name of " Qui feri?" or "Who 

 strikes ? " the person blindfolded having to guess by 

 whom he had been hit and with which hand. Among 

 the French the game has long been a great favourite ; 

 and the name of mainchaude which they have given to it 

 conveys a humorous sense of the warm exercise of the 

 hand which it calls forth when carried on with anima- 

 tion. In our country it is called hot-cockles, and is 

 known to every child, especially in the southern parts. 

 We thus see that the game has a wide range of distribu- 

 tion, and may be traced back to the very limits of his- 

 torical antiquity. Whether Egypt was the place where it 

 originated, or how long before the representation on the 

 tomb of the Beni- Hassan it was practised, we cannot 

 tell ; but in that country we have the earliest trace of it, 

 and in all likelihood it spread throughout Europe and 

 Asia from that source. The form pictured in the 

 Egyptian tombs seems to have been the primitive type 

 of the game. But various modifications of it were con- 

 trived at a later time. Our own children are familiar 

 with one variety, in which the principal figure is not 

 blindfolded at all, but is simply struck by one who runs 



