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Gasing from Indonesia

Gasing is a traditional children's game from Indonesia. It uses a piece of bamboo about 5 inches long with a stick that pierces through the center of the tube-shaped bamboo, or the body. Part of the stick above the body is longer than below it. A piece of rope about 3 to 4 feet long is coiled around the upper stick.

Another piece of equipment is a small rod with a small hole. The player pulls the rope using his left hand, while his right hand is holding the rod against the gasing body in an upright position, causing the gasing to rotate and make a wailing sound. You can imagine the different sounds caused by two or more players who pull their gasings together.

The player with the gasing that rotates the longest is the winner. The length of the rotation is quality of the gasing, and of course the strength of the pull by the player. Sometimes people make bets using small pictures. When adults play, they often use money.

Marbles is a seasonal game - in the British climate, the autumn and winter are far too wet and cold to be squatting down and scrabbling around in the mud playing marbles, but the coming of fine weather in spring is marked by a rattling in the pockets and groups of children huddled round preparing for a game.

There is a mystique attached to the marbles themselves, and a great deal of time is spent collecting, swapping and admiring marbles. Certain types are much prized and are "worth" several ordinary glass marbles. "Glass Alleys" have a rarity value and are the antiques of the marbles world - when I was a child we got ours by smashing the necks of the "Cod" lemonade bottles, which used them to prevent leaks. There are still "Glass Alleys" around but they are few and far between, and usually donated by Grandad. "Bollys" (large bearings) are also sought after, particularly for their devastating effect on ordinary glass marbles when fired with any force, and may be banned by mutual agreement if any particularly valued marbles are being played with.

In the simplest game, a circle or "tal" is drawn with chalk. Each player puts a prearranged number of "ordinary" marbles in the tal and stands behind a line drawn some distance away - usually four or five yards. The children then take turns to fire at the tal : the time-honoured way is to rest the marble on the joint of the bent index finger and flick it with the thumb - with practice, quite some force and accuracy can be achieved. The basic object of the game is to drive marbles out of the tal - the player who has fired gets to keep any marbles that leave the circle. If his marble stays in the circle, it has to be left there, if it comes out he may retrieve it and have another go.

In another variation, if the playing surface is soft enough to allow a hole to be dug with a heel, the "tal" takes the form of a shallow hollow in the ground about six inches across. All the players start off ten yards or so away from the tal, behind a start line.