Forfeits

Source: What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games And Pastimes
Category: GAMES FOR A PARTY



In many of the games already described mention has been made of
"Forfeits." They do not now play quite so important a part in an
evening's entertainment as once they did, but they can still add to
the interest of games. "Paying a forfeit" means giving up to the
player who is collecting forfeits some personal article or other--a
knife, a pencil, a handkerchief--which, at the end of the game, or
later in the evening, has to be recovered by performing whatever
penance is ordered. When the times comes for "crying the forfeits," as
it is called, the player who has them sits in a chair, while another
player, either blindfolded or hiding her eyes, kneels before her, the
remaining players standing all around. The first player then holds up
a forfeit, remarking, "I have a thing, and a very pretty thing. Pray
what shall be done to the owner of this pretty thing?" To which the
blindfolded one replies by asking, "Is it fine or superfine?" meaning,
Does it belong to a boy (fine) or a girl (superfine)? The answer is
either "It is fine," or "It is superfine," and the blindfolded one
then announces what its owner must do to get possession of it again.
Of stock penances there are a great number, most of which are tricks
which, once known, are necessarily very tame afterward. In the case of
those that follow, therefore, something definite and practical is
required.

Frown for a minute.
Dance for a minute.
See how many you can count in a minute.
Say the alphabet backward.
Do the exact opposite of three things ordered by the company.
Crow like a cock.
Say "Gig whip" ten times very rapidly.
Say "Mixed biscuits" ten times very rapidly.
Say rapidly: "She stood on the steps of Burgess's Fish Sauce Shop
selling shell fish."
Say rapidly: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper. A peck
of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck
of pickled pepper, where is the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper
picked?"
Count fifty backward.
Repeat a nursery rhyme.
Hold your hands behind you, and, keeping them there, lie down
and get up again.
Hold your hands together and put them under your feet and over
your head.
Walk round the room balancing three books on your head without
using your hands.

Smile to the prettiest,
Bow to the wittiest,
And kiss the one you love the best.

Yawn until you make some one else yawn.
Push your friend's head through a ring. (Put your finger through
a ring and push your friend's head with the tip.)
Place a straw on the floor so that you can't jump over it. (Very
close to the wall.)
Put a chair on a table, take off your shoes and jump over them.
(Over your shoes.)
Leave the room with two legs and come in with six. (Bring in a
chair.)
Repeat five times without mistake, "A rat ran over the roof of
the house with a lump of raw liver in his mouth."
Repeat ten times rapidly, "Troy boat."
Ask a question to which "no" cannot be answered. (What does y-e-s
spell?)
Shake a dime off your forehead. (The coin is wet and some one
presses it firmly to the forehead of the one to pay the forfeit,
who must keep his eyes closed. The dime is taken away, but the
forfeit player still feels it there and tries to shake it off.)
Repeat a verse of poetry, counting the words aloud. Mary (one)
had (two) a (three) little (four) lamb (five).
Dance in one corner, cry in another, sing in another, and fall
dead in the fourth.

Two forfeits may be redeemed at once by blindfolding two players,
handing them each a glass of water, and bidding them give the other
a drink. This, however, can be a very damp business.

The old way of getting rid of a large number of forfeits was to tell
their owners to hold a cats' concert, in which each sings a different
song at the same time. Perhaps it would be less noisy and more
interesting if they were told to personate a farm-yard.


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