Posted on by TracyC

Heckedy Peg

HeckedyPeg

Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood, 1987.

A mother leaves her seven children, all named after days of the week, alone at home while she goes to the market.  Before she leaves, each of the children asks her for something special, and the mother warns them not to let strangers in or touch the fire.

However, while she is gone, a witch, Heckedy Peg, comes to the house and asks the children to light her pipe for her, offering them a sack of gold in return.  At the sight of the gold, the children let her in, and she turns each of the children into a different kind of food, which she takes back to her hut in the woods.

HeckedyPegChallenge

When the mother returns home and discovers that the witch has taken her children, she goes into the woods to get them back.  Heckedy Peg says that the mother can reclaim her children if she can determine which type of food on her table is which child.  At first, the mother doesn’t know what to do, but then she realizes that the things her children wanted from the market are the clues to determine their identities.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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My Reaction

The pictures in the book are wonderful, but the most interesting part for me is in the note on the back, which explains that the story is based on a 16th century game that children still play which involves guessing the identities of children within a certain category of things.

I wouldn’t recommend the book for very young children because the way the children in the story were turned into food might be frightening.  Also, when the mother goes to the witch’s hut the witch refuses to let her in until she cuts off her feet, which she only pretends to do, but the idea is a little disturbing.  The part about cutting off the feet is a reference to part of the original game.

HeckedyPegCelebrate

Posted on by TracyC

Games From Long Ago

Historic Communities

GamesLongAgo

Games From Long Ago by Bobbie Kalman, 1995.

GamesLongAgoForfeitsThis book is about games people would play in 19th century America.  There is a variety of different types of games, although the main focus is on parlor games.  Many of them have been passed on for generations by word of mouth and are still played today, such  as Charades and Blind Man’s Buff, although the book discusses games that are no longer common.

One important concept in 19th century games was the “forfeit”, where losing players would have to perform a kind of silly stunt. The other players might hold onto an object belonging to the losing player, holding it as hostage until they performed the stunt.  Forfeits were a common part of parlor games.

The book also talks about popular tabletop games such as dominoes, cards, tiddlywinks, and pick-up sticks.  Because dice were often associated with gambling, movements in board games were often determined by spinners or special numbered spinning tops called “teetotums,” which look something like dreidels but with more sides.  Board games for children were often educational, teaching them about subjects like history or geography or moral lessons, rewarding “good” decisions and penalizing “bad” ones (although, since movements in these games were determined by spinners, the players were at the mercy of the random chance as to which of these choices their playing pieces landed on, not making actual good and bad decisions by themselves).

GamesLongAgoTeetotum

There are also examples of games played at work parties, parties or “bees” organized around farm tasks such as barn-building or harvests.  These parties might include a hay maze (like a corn maze, but with hay sheaves), a game of Gossip (an early version of Telephone, played exactly the same way), or Bobbing for Apples.

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There is a short section about games for specific holidays, although there are only three given.  Two of them are for Christmas (one of those is a basic version of Pinata called Bag and Stick), and one for Valentine’s Day.  There are also sections about outdoor games and sports.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

GamesLongAgoOutdoor