The Linen
Translation details
Model:mistral-large-2512.Translated text
Section titled “Translated text”A game from the rural children of certain regions of Mazovia and Lesser Poland; suitable for kindergarten gardens and elementary schools. The children choose (by drawing lots) a “housewife,” a “washerwoman,” a “dog,” a “hen,” and a “thief.” The rest become the “linen”: a row of children, holding hands, stands in a semicircle. The housewife “rolls up” the linen (the chain of children coils up, as in the well-known parlor game of “bouquet”) and goes to sleep (moves aside and pretends to sleep). Then the thief comes, tears off an “ell of linen” (one child) and runs away with them to a hiding place. The hen crows, the dog barks; the housewife comes and “measures” the linen (counts the children). She asks the hen: — Where is the ell of linen? — The washerwoman washed it, didn’t finish, and threw it into the well. — The same question is asked of the washerwoman—she replies: — I washed it but didn’t finish, threw it into the well, and placed a stone on it. — Then the housewife rolls up the linen again and goes to sleep, and the theft repeats anew, and so on. During the last theft, the washerwoman says: — I don’t know. — Then the dog picks up the thief’s trail; the children flee from the hiding place, and the housewife chases them and brings them back home.
Source scan: Kujawsko-Pomorska Digital Library, marked “Public Domain.” See PDF — page 115.
Metadata
Section titled “Metadata”- Type: game
- Traits: Not stated in the source
- Source: Eugeniusz Piasecki, Zabawy i gry ruchowe dzieci i młodzieży (1922)
- Printed pages: 110–111 / PDF 115–116
- Digital edition: Digital edition · Source record
- Open the edition at the relevant page: p. 110
- Read the source text: zgr-071