Children’s Games
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Skeat, Walter William
The well-known game called Sapu-sapu ’Ringin I have seen played as follows:—
Two players sit down on the floor opposite each other, with their legs stretched out straight in front of them and their hands in their laps, and join in singing these lines:—
Sapu-sapu bĕringin,
Brush, brush the banyan-tree,
Katimbun dayong-dayong,
A pile of oars lies stacked;
Datang ’Che Aji Lĕbai
Here comes ’Che Aji Lĕbai
Bawa buaya kudong.
Bringing a maimed crocodile:
Kudong kaki, kudong tangan,
Maimed in foot and maimed in hand,
Tiada buleh bĕrpulangan.
It can’t go home again.
Here both players double up one leg under them as they sit; then they repeat the lines just quoted, doubling up the left leg at the end of the recital; then they close the fists and pile them one on each other, the lowest resting on one of the player’s knees, and say—
Pong along-along
......
Kĕrinting riang-riang,
Crick-crick (?) (sing) the crickets (?)
Kĕtapong kĕbalok
......
Minyak ʿArab, minyak sapi,
Arabian oil and ghee;177
Pĕchah tĕlor sa-biji.
Here’s one egg broken.
Here the lowest fist is flattened out. In the same way each of the four eggs (i.e. fists) is broken till the top is reached, when the four hands are moved up and down on the left knee of one of the players as the chant recommences—
P’ram p’ram pisang
... the plantain,
Masak sa-biji di-gonggong bari-bari
The fruit-bat seizes a ripe one,
Bawa lari,
And takes it away
Tĕrbang-lah dia!
As off he flies!
Here both players raise their hands above their heads; then one player commences to rock to and fro (with arms now folded), the other holding him (or her) by the arms and crying—
Goyang-goyang Pah Ponggor
Swing, swing, Father Ponggor;
Pah Ponggor mati akar!
Father Ponggor, the climbing rattan is dead!
Si ʿAli ka padang