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Dawn had come out to grease the wheels of the Sun’s coach, and, after the effort of removing the grass from the hubs of the wheel with a stick, became as red as a summer apple. Then Tadeo got out of bed, and after a good long stretch he called the slave and they got dressed in four snaps and then went down to the garden, where they found that the ten women had already arrived. And after he had four fresh figs picked for each of them, figs that with their pauper’s skin, hanged man’s neck, and whore’s tears1 made everyone’s mouth water, a thousand games2 commenced so that the time left before eating might be deceived. And they overlooked neither Anca Nicola;3 nor the 143 1. “The requisites for a ripe fig: the skin about to crack open, a long stem, and sticky discharge at the bottom” (Rak 280). 2. “Children’s and society games have an important role in the structure of Lo cunto, a text destined for entertainment” (Rak 280). Besides this catalogue of thirty-one popular games, there are another fourteen mentioned at the start of day 4. Most of these, as well as others, also appear in Basile’s letters published with Giulio Cesare Cortese’s Vaiasseide. In M. A. Perillo’s pastoral drama La pescatrice (1630), a similar catalogue can be found (Croce 145). 3. “One child bends down and puts his head on the lap of another sitting child, who then holds his hands over the eyes of the first. A third jumps onto the back of the first and sings ‘Anca Nicola, you’re beautiful and you’re good, And you’re married: How many horns do you have on your head?’ as he puts a hand on the other’s head and lifts up a certain number of fingers. The other guesses, and if he does not guess right, the round is repeated. The game and song are quite ancient, appearing , for example, in a scene painted at Herculaneum” (Ferdinando Galiani, Del dialetto napoletano 154–55; cit. Croce 556–57). Part II, The Second Day 144 Wheel of Kicks;4 nor Watch Your Wife;5 nor Covalera;6 nor Buddy of Mine, I’m Wounded;7 nor Proclamation and Command;8 nor the Master Is Welcome;9 nor Little Swallow, My Little Swallow;10 nor Empty the Cask; 11 nor Jump a Palm’s-Length;12 nor Stone in Your Lap;13 nor Fish in the Sea, Go After Him;14 4. See frame tale n2. 5. Similar to the Sicilian game described by Pitrè: “One person kneels, and plays the part of the ‘wife.’ The ‘mother’ (game-leader) walks around him, just as the other players are doing, and defends the wife’s head from their blows, which come in the form of punches, kicks, and shoves. If the mother, who has the role of ‘wife watcher,’ touches one of them, the touched person is ‘it’ and the previous wife becomes the game-leader” (Giochi fanciulleschi no. 168, 290–91; cit. Guarini and Burani 176–77). 6. A variant of hide-and-seek, “the game of the brooding hen [covalera means ‘she who broods’] is played in Naples by older girls in this way: eight or ten gather together and first play at tocco [a sort of finger game to determine who takes the first turn] to see who will be the brooding hen. The one to whom it falls must swear not to look where the others are going to hide; when they have hidden they call out to the brooding hen: ‘Come out! Come out!’ The brooding hen gets up and starts looking for the others; when she finds one she embraces her, saying ‘Bird, bird!’ and the one caught becomes the brooding hen” (B. Zito, Defennemiento della Vaiasseide 68; cit. Croce 557). 7. Similar to the Sicilian game described by Pitrè: “Two children lie face-down on the ground, head to head, and cover themselves completely, so they can neither see nor be seen; the person assisting them is called the ‘mother.’ The other players stand and hit, one at a time, the two who are covered. The one hit says to the other: ‘Buddy of mine, I’m wounded,’ and the other: ‘Who was it?’ If the answer is correct, the player who guessed gets out from under cover and takes the place of the hitter, who goes...

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