Find me, catch me!
It’s Alfredo’s turn to be “blind hen.” Pedro ties a big, red
handkerchief over Alfredo’s eyes. Then Pedro, Inez, Maria, and Juan form
a circle around Alfredo. The four of them begin to chant, “Blind hen,
blind hen, what have you lost?”
“I’ve lost a thimble and a needle,” Alfredo replies.
“Where have you lost them?” ask the others.
“In a haystack,” says Alfredo.
Inez steps into the circle. She turns Alfredo around three times and
steps back. Now the children begin to tease Alfredo. They run up to him
and shout, “Blind hen, blind hen.”
Alfredo reaches out to catch them. But he is dizzy from being turned
around. It is as black as night behind the blindfold. Besides, the
children are careful to move away whenever Alfredo’s hands come close to
them. Then Juan gets careless. Alfredo grabs Juan’s poncho. Now it is
Juan’s turn to be “blind hen.”
Alfredo and his friends live in Peru. But “find me, catch me” games like
blind hen are played in other parts of the world.
When Roman children played this game about 2,000 years ago, they called
it murinda. Nowadays, Italian children know it as mosca deca.
Chinese children call it tsoo, tsoo. German children call it
blindekuh. And in the United States, children call it blindman’s buff.
What do you call it?
