A game to choose who will be "it" in the ensuing game--people are playing this in the month of March. Everyone stands in a circle holding their first two fingers out to be counted. One person chants the following, counting a finger for each word spoken:
Put your two cigarettes in
Let me hear you cough, sir (cough cough)
Very bad indeed, sir
How many do you need, sir
And the person whose finger was counted on that last "sir" calls out a number (say, 14). The chanter then counts out that number on everyone's fingers, and the person whose finger on which the last chanted number lands (in this case, 14) withdraws that finger, leaving only one in the circle. And then you start again, until only person's single finger is remaining. They are "it" for the following game.
My informants expressed some anxiety about this chant, on two grounds: first, that it involves cigarettes; and second, that you can accidentally and unavoidably make a forbidden gesture of the hands.
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