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Prisoners' Base

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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PRISONERS' BASE (PRISONERS' Bars), an ancient game much affected by children. The players are divided into two sides, each standing within a base or home marked off at some distance apart. After preliminary songs and war-like challenges, a player on"one side runs out and is pursued by one of " the enemy "; if touched he becomes a prisoner of the side to which his captor belongs. If another player from the side of the pursued runs between him and his pursuer, the latter has to follow him, but the last to leave his base is privileged to touch any one of the enemy who left his base before him. The rules of the game are, however, traditional, and necessarily somewhat elastic. The end comes, of course, when all of one side have been captured by the other.