A small space is marked off at one end of the ground as a “home” or goal. One player is chosen to be the Panjandrum, an important personage requiring a body guard. Two other players are chosen to be the guard. The game starts with these three players in the home ground and the balance of the players at large. The three issue forth, with the two players who act as body guard clasping each other by the hand and preceding the Panjandrum as a shield. The object of the game is for the players at large to touch or tantalize the Panjandrum without being tagged by his guard.
The guard will shift around their charge to avoid these attacks, and the Panjandrum himself may evade them by moving around his guard. Whenever a guard succeeds in tagging a player, the Panjandrum and his guards return at once to the home; whereupon the player tagged changes places with the Panjandrum, and the game goes on as before.
Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium by Jessie Hubbell Bancroft