Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

part of Jamaican play traditions (Beckwith 5).
Puerto-Rican Tag
It’s called Puerto-Rican Tag, and it’s like Hide and Go Seek and it’s like Leapfrog, and it’s 
really neat. And then you see first, you know, first the person turns around and covers 
their eyes and counts to about fifty, or whatever the chosen number is. And 
then,
every-
body hides, and if the person, once the person is three feet or five feet away . . . they’re 
supposed to run out in front of ’em. Now to defend yourself is to go under to bend down 
over and if the person bends over, the person has to 
leapfrog
over ’em. And after about 
three people have been leapfrogged, or something like that, you know . . . everybody races 
back and the one who’s left there is it. But the thing is, if you’re tagged when you’re ducked 
down, you’re automatically it.
Eleven-year-old Barbara explained this game to me in Bloomington, Indiana, 
in March 1977 (“Tradition and Creativity” 537). Her excitement about playing 

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74 Children’s 
Folklore
three games at once shines through in her description. Both Leapfrog and Hide-
and-Seek involve vigorous movement. Tag, which has taken many forms, is one of 
the most variable and entertaining games known to elementary-school children.
Ringalevio
Everyone could play. What you do is choose up sides. It does not make a difference how 
many people you’ve got. You can have four on each side, five on each side. The game is 
best with three or more.
One side stays in a designated area and counts to one hundred while the other side 
hides. After the side that is “it” counts to one hundred, they begin looking for the other 
side. If a person who has been hiding is found, you bring them to an area which acts like 
a pen. Now anyone who is still in hiding can come in and free these guys in the pen. All 
he has to do is yell “Ringalevio” and then everyone in the team is freed from the pen and 
may hide again.
Nick, a 67-year-old Russian American who played Ringalevio in Brooklyn 
in the 1920s, described the game’s rules in Freehold, New Jersey, in April 1981. 
Alice Bertha Gomme includes a variant called Relievo in the second volume of 
her 
Traditional Games
(107); Simon J. Bronner describes a game called Rolevo 
in his study of American children’s games (184). Since this game involves team 
formation, it represents a higher level of organization than central-person games 
such as Tag.
Pirañas
It’s called Pirañas and somebody is a piraña, and you have as many people as you want. 
And they swim around, and if the piraña comes up and bites you on the foot or on the 
arm, you have to sink and touch the bottom before you can come back up. And the piraña 
has to make sure you do.
Amanda, age eight, described this game in Binghamton, New York, in April 
1987. Less well known than the popular swimming pool chasing game Marco 
Polo (Knapp and Knapp 52; Bronner 179), this one lets children imitate pursuit 
of prey by carnivorous fish.
Ball Games
Spud
One player is chosen to be “it.” A ball is tossed into the air while the other players try to 
run as far away as possible. When “it” catches the ball, he immediately yells “Spud” and all 
the other players must freeze. “It” then takes three steps toward any player, throws the ball 
and attempts to hit one player. If “it” hits another player with the ball, the player receives 

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Examples and Texts 75
the letter S. This continues until one player gets the entire word “Spud.” The first player 
to spell out the word becomes the new “it.”
Deborah Haines wrote this description of Spud in Gary, Indiana, in 1972; 
Gary Hall included it in his “Folkgames” essay in 1973 (73). Like various Tag 
games, Spud involves role reversal and energetic running. This version, like the 
basketball games of Pig or Horse, lets players accumulate letters that delay the 
moment of losing until the word becomes complete.