An early 16th century game played by Danish children in western Denmark. Referred to by the Danes as "mudret stok" meaning literally "mud cane"; this translation was mistaken and the
American term "poking mud with a
stick" was born. Of course, this is not to be confused with "dødbider" which translates to the
American term "stick in the mud". The rules have remained the same threw the centuries, as well as the uncommon theme that the activity possesses. Unlike the widespread idea of winning that convolutes many of today's pass times, mudret stok is a noncompetitive group activity. It is distinguishable by a circle of children in a half-crouching position, in which the back is horizontal with the ground. Each
child is allotted one
stick of similar length, about a meter or three feet, but it is said that the earlier players would have played with canes reaching up to three and a half meters across. The most common misconception of this game is that it must be played in a grubby environment, by today's standards this is simply not true, but for authenticity proposes it will be described as such. The rules are reasonably simple; each
child, while in a half-crouched position, holds their respective
stick, in hand, with elbow slightly bent. The
child then thrusts the
stick into the wettened dirt repeatedly; eventually, the stick's end becomes heavy due to the accumulation of soot. After a short amount of time the weight of the stick's end becomes unbearable and the
child is, in turn, able to rest and compare time and stick weight with the other children. As stated earlier the game is not competition based, instead it was an activity created to get Danish children together during the warmer
summer months.
