[Fictionary] Shai, fai, hori, and janja too

[Jim Moskowitz]

>jinkim, n. A Victorian children's game played with clothespins and a knife.
>by Jim Moskowitz. 4

>Eric: Hee-hee!  Yes, those Victorians were not quite so safety-obsessed as we
>have become. . . . Two points, but only if the author will follow up with a
>description of how to play.

>J-J: If this one is real, I want to know the rules.  I'm also wondering
>whether the knife poses a hazard like it does in mumbledy-peg, or if it's
>just a marker or some such.  One point.



By popular demand....

Jinkim is played in an open field or playground, in the center of 
which a knife has been set into the ground with the blade sticking up 
several inches. The players, who may range in number from twelve to 
one-hundred, are divided into two teams, and from each team a target, 
or jinkim, is chosen. All but the jinkims are given a clothes-pin. 
The jinkims are made known to the members of the other team, and then 
all players scatter promiscuously about the playing area.
Each player must fix their clothes-pin to the clothes of the jinkim 
of the other team. Once he has done so, the player leaves the field 
to the side-lines. The jinkims may not leave the playing field, nor 
remove any clothes-pins which have been placed on them, nor may any 
other player touch a clothes-pin so attached, except that the jinkims 
may use the knife to scrape off or cut off their clothes-pins, with 
the caution that while doing so they will be in one place, and 
therefore easier for the other team to catch.  During the entire game 
all players chant, "jinkim! jinkim!".
As soon as all of the members of one team, except its jinkim, have 
returned to the side-lines, the game is concluded, and the jinkims 
stand while the number of clothes-pins successfully attached to each 
is counted. Which-ever team has put the most pins onto the other 
team's jinkim is declared the Winner.


[Jinkim was often the source of what unscrupulous veterans later 
claimed were "war wounds"]