Hawaiian Children's Games

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not in the original article. Each source page number
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46. Hu-a ko pa - SOAP-BUBBLES

Blowing Soap Bubbles

[Page 222] Soap-bubble blowing is an amusement of children.

Ko-pa is the Hawaiian pronunciation of soap.


35. Ho pu ho-pu-na-lo and 36. Le-le-pi-nau.

Dragonfly

DRAGONFLY-CATCHING
[Page 219] Children catch dragonflies, pi-nau, in a net, crying out the number, one, two, three, four, and so on, as they catch them. The one who first gets ten wins. All then stop, and putting the dragonflies in their handkerchiefs, count "one, two, three," and release them.

DRAGONFLY-FLYING
Children catch dragonflies and tie them to a string to see which can fly farthest.



28. Pai-pai-li-ma - HAND-CLAPPING

Hand Clapping

[Page 216] Two persons stand opposite each other and clap their hands in the same manner as played by children in the United States. The movements are as follows:

  1. both clap hands
  2. clap left hands
  3. clap hands
  4. clap right hands
  5. clap hands
  6. clap each other's hands, and then repeat.

This is described as a girls' game. They sing, keeping time to the play.

Last update February 1, 2010