Hopscotch

hopscotch, age-old children’s game based on an idea of not treading on lines. Variations of the game are played in many countries. The game’s English name expresses its object: to hop over the “scotch,” a line, or scratch, drawn on the ground. Lines are drawn in a variety of patterns. Spaces in the diagrams are numbered, and they must be traversed in order.

In one version of the game, the player tosses a small, flat marker such as a stone or a beanbag into the first numbered space. If the marker does not land clearly in the correct space, without touching a line, the player loses a turn. If the stone does land fairly, the player hops on one foot to the second square and thence through the succeeding squares, in order and without touching a line, falling, or dropping the trailing foot. In some diagrams there are certain pairs of squares where the player jumps with both feet. In other diagrams, certain squares may designate rest spaces, in which the player may put both feet down. Upon reaching the last numbered square, the player turns and moves through the spaces as before, lifts the marker, and hops out of the diagram. A player who completes the diagram without making a mistake may continue, tossing the marker into the second square, hopping into the first space then over the second and into the third, and so on, until the whole diagram has been played in this manner. On completing the diagram, the player may initial any one of its spaces, which space the other players must then avoid, although the initialing player may use it as a rest space. The game ends by mutual consent or when all spaces have been initialed. The player who has initialed the most spaces is the winner.

In a common variation, the marker must be kicked with the hopping foot from space to space. Or the player tosses the marker into the first space, then hops on one foot into that space and kicks the marker back across the base line and out of the diagram, continuing this procedure for each space in sequence. In Hinkspiel, a German variation, a player who completes the sequence turns away from the diagram and tosses the marker over her shoulder. The space in which it lands is her “house,” a rest space that the other players must then avoid unless its “owner” gives them permission to use it. Croatian children play skola (“school”), which refers to the squares as first through sixth grades of school. Among Igbo girls in Nigeria the game is known as swehi. The diagram is drawn in sand, and a stone or a ball of crushed leaves is used as a marker. The rules resemble those in the German game of Hinkspiel. In swehi, if the player’s stone is tossed on a line, she is out of the game. At the end of the game, the players make drawings in each of the squares.

Hopscotch may also be played with a spiral diagram (this variant is known as escargot in France, for the spiral of the snail shell), in which players hop on one foot to a central rest spot and then back out again. Each player who succeeds may initial a space. The game continues until it becomes impossible to reach the centre or until all spaces are initialed.