TAG

also called touch, or tig children's game in which, in its simplest form, one player (it, or he) chases the others and tries to touch one of them, making the person touched it. The game is known by many other names. In some games, it is pretended that the touch carries some form of contagione.g., plague (Italy), leprosy (Madagascar), fleas (Spain), or lurgy fever (Great Britain). In others, a method of achieving immunity from touch is prescribed, as by touching wood, iron, or a specified colour or by holding oneself off the ground or assuming a particular position (e.g., squatting). Often limitations or handicaps are imposed on the chaser: he may be required to clasp hands and imitate a horned animal (stag, bull, or goat) or squat and hop like a frog while the others caper freely around him; or those tagged may be required to clasp the spot of the touch while chasing others (French or Chinese touch, in Great Britain; Englisch Zeck in Germany). In some games, a ball is used as an extension of the chaser, who throws it at his intended victim. As a game progresses, the original chaser may enlist those touched to help catch the others; sometimes the captives link hands to form a chain, with the players on either end making the capture. Suspense is an important element of certain elaborations of the game: in ostrakinda, described by the 2nd-century Greek writer Julius Pollux, two teams stood on either side of a line. A shell was spun or tossed in the air, and one team chased the other according to which side of the shell turned up. In another form, the chaser turns his back and walks slowly away, while the others follow at a short distance and chant a rhyme or ask a question (What's the time, Mr. Bear?). The chaser then turns suddenly, sometimes shouting a certain word or phrase (Dinnertime!), and pursues them. In still another version, players must run from one safety zone to another across a central area where the chaser waits for them (black peter in central Europe, wall to wall in Great Britain, and pom-pom-pullaway in the United States).