Huckle buckle beanstalk

Huckle Buckle Beanstalk, also called Hide the Object or Hide the Key, is a childhood game which involves the hiding and seeking of an object. It is a variation of a traditional parlour game which can be played with two or more players, one being the hider, or the person who is "it," and the other person or persons being seekers. The game has also been known as Hot Buttered Beans in the US since at least 1830 [Halsey refers to Eliza Leslie’s "American Girls’ Book" (1831)] and as Hunt the Thimble, Hide the Thimble or Hide the Handkerchief in both the US and the UK. William Wells Newell described a version called Thimble in Sight in his 1883 "Games and Songs of American Children". The game is known in various European countries. [For example, as "cache-tampon" in France.]

The seekers must cover their eyes and ears or leave the designated game area while the hider hides a small, pre-selected object. When the hider says to come and find it, or after the seekers have counted to a specific number, usually sixty or one-hundred, the seekers come out and attempt to be the first to find the object. When a seeker has the object in hand, he can alert the other players of his success by yelling "huckle buckle beanstalk!" This game is promoted as a fun, safe rainy-day game for young children.

Brian Sutton-Smith and other writers put this in a category of "central person" games which give one individual child a central role. The set-up can be reversed with that role given to a single seeker, while all the other players try to keep an object hidden from the odd-one-out, either by sending him out of the room while hiding it, or by passing it round behind their backs. This is a common way of organising 'Hide the Key' or 'Hunt the Slipper'.

Games played like this, sometimes with children forming a circle round the seeker, sometimes with one child blindfolded, pre-date Victorian parlour games. In 1838 Hunt the Slipper, played as a single-seeker circle game, was said by one writer to be "nearly out of fashion" in Southern England. [William Holloway, "Dictionary of Provincialisms" (1838) quoted by Alice Gomme] In 1766 Oliver Goldsmith described it being played in "The Vicar of Wakefield", calling it a "primaeval pastime". [ [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/g/goldsmith/oliver/vicar/chapter11.html Vicar of Wakefield" Chap 11] ]

Both one-seeker and one-hider approaches have been associated with Hot Boiled Beans. A seeker may be called to enter the room and look for something hidden with, "Hot boiled beans and butter; walk in and find your supper!" This can be traced back to at least the mid-19th century. [ [http://books.google.com/books?vid=0WStzP1p8VxhVksD&id=IkECAAAAQAAJ "Games and Sports for Young Boys (Routledge 1859)] ] Several similar rhymes from different parts of England were recorded by 19th century folklorist Alice Gomme. They were sung or recited in games with one or more hiders: for example, "Little pigs come to supper/Hot boiled beans and ready butter." Other names were 'Hot Broad Beans' and 'Hot Beans and Butter'.

A modern and more adult variation of Huckle Buckle Beanstalk is Geocaching.

Playing with Hot or Cold

Often, especially when there is only one seeker, the game is played using "hot or cold," where the hider informs the seeker how near he is to the object, telling him he is cold when he is far from the object (or freezing or if he is extremely far off), and hot when he is extremely close to the object. If the seeker is moving farther from the object, he is told he is getting colder, and if the seeker is moving closer to the object, he is told he is getting warmer.

Charles Dickens refers to this in "Edwin Drood":

" . . . like the children in the game of hot boiled beans and very good butter, he was warm in his search when he saw the Tower, and cold when he didn't see it. "

In the season 4 episode of "Full House" titled "Ol' Brown Eyes," Michelle plays this game with Joey using Becky's engagement ring.

References

*Alice Gomme, "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland" (1894), republished by Thames & Hudson 1984
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17857/17857-h/17857-h.htm Rosalie V. Halsey, "Forgotten Books of the American Nursery" (1911)]
* [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC25712421 Lydia Maria Child , "The Girl's Own Book" (1856)]
*B. Sutton-Smith; B. G. Rosenberg, "Sixty Years of Historical Change in the Game Preferences of American Children" in "The Journal of American Folklore" Vol. 74, No. 291 (Jan., 1961), pp. 17-46

External links

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* [http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/gomme.htm Alice Gomme]