Chase and Catch Games Whip Tag
( Chase and Catch, Circle and Breakthrough, Tag )This game may be played with a knotted towel though it is perhaps more skillful and interesting when played with a “beetle ” a small cylindrical sack about twenty inches long stuffed with cotton and resembling in general proportions a policemans club.
All but one of the players stand in a circle with hands behind their backs. The odd player runs around the outside carrying the beetle which he drops in the hands of any player in the circle. That player immediately turns to chase his right-hand neighbor beating him as much as he can find opportunity for while he chases him around the circle and back to his place. It is obviously to the interest of this neighbor to outrun the beetle and escape a buffeting.
The one holding the beetle then takes the place of the first outside player that one joining the ring. The new beetle man in turn runs around on the outside and drops the beetle in any hands which he chooses.
The sport of this game depends on the alertness of the players as not only the one who receives the beetle but his right-hand neighbor must know when and where the beetle lands and turn quickly for the chase. The player running around the outside will add to the zest of the game by trying to deceive the ring players as to where he is going to place the beetle quickening or slowing his pace or resorting to other devices to keep them on the alert.