Blind man's buff
Blind man's bluff is a children's game, a variant of tag. Sometimes referred to as "blind man's buff", wherein the word buff is used in its obsolete sense of a small push[1], the game claims lineage as far back as the late Zhou Dynasty (circa 500 B.C.) and the Han Dynasty of ancient China.[2]
Gameplay
Blind man's bluff is played in a spacious area, such as outdoors or in a large room, in which one player, designated as "It", is blindfolded and gropes around attempting to touch the other players without being able to see them, while the other players scatter and try to avoid the person who is "it", hiding in plain sight and sometimes teasing them to make them change direction.
Blind man's bluff is ideally played in an area free of dangerous obstructions so that the "It" player will not suffer injury from tripping over or hitting something.
Versions
There are several versions of the game:
- In one version, the first player tagged by It then becomes It, and another round of the game is played.
→The Chinese version refers to the tagged It as jīn dài 今代, literally "now, on behalf of".
- In another version, whenever any player is tagged by It, that player is out of the game. The game proceeds until all players are out of the game, at which point another round of the game starts, with either the first player or the last player to be tagged becoming the next It player.
- In yet another version, It feels the face of the person tagged and attempts to identify the person, and only if the person is correctly identified does the person become It.
History
The game was played at least as far back as the Tudor period, as there are references to it being played by Henry VIII's courtiers. It was also a popular parlor game in the Victorian era. The poet Robert Herrick references it in his poem "A New Yeares Gift Sent to Sir Simeon Steward":[3]
That tells of Winters Tales and Mirth,
That Milk-Maids make about the hearth,
Of Christmas sports, the Wassell-boule,
That tost up, after Fox-i' th' hole:
Of Blind-man-buffe, and of the care
That young men have to shooe the Mare
Similar games
A children's game similar to blind man's bluff is Marco Polo. Marco Polo is played in a swimming pool; the player who is It calls out "Marco" to which the other players must reply "Polo", thus indicating their positions and making it easier for It to go in the right direction.
See also
References
