HIDE-AND-SEEK

old and popular children's game in which one player closes his eyes for a brief period (often counting to 100) while the other players hide. The seeker then opens his eyes and tries to find the hiders; the first one found is the next seeker, and the last is the winner of the round. In one of many forms of the game, the hiders try to run back to base while the seeker is away looking for them; if all of the hiders return safely, the seeker repeats as seeker in the next round. In other variations, the seeker may be helped by those he finds, or only one may hide and be sought by all the rest, as in sardines, where one hides and is joined by seekers surreptitiously as they find him, the name of the game coming from the crowded condition of the hiding place. Hide-and-seek appears to be equivalent to the game apodidraskinda, described by the 2nd-century Greek writer Julius Pollux.