How to play
- Participants
- We suggest 8–14 participants: a cat, a mouse and enough people for a roomy circle.
- Space
- A level area with space inside and around the circle.
- Equipment
- No equipment
- Starting formation
- Everyone except the pair holds hands in a circle. The mouse starts inside and the cat outside.
- The cat begins chasing the mouse. The circle players watch both runners and stay in position.
- As the mouse approaches, they raise their joined hands to let it through. They lower their hands to close the route to the cat.
- If the cat enters the circle, the mouse can leave through another opened gap. Both runners stay close to the circle.
- When the mouse is caught, both players rejoin the circle. Select a new pair and return to the starting formation.
Ending: A round ends when the mouse is caught. A new pair starts the next round.
Documented version: This uses the guide’s Pelė ir katinas entry: one circle and one pair. Extra variants under the neighbouring Katė ir pelė heading are not combined with it.
Names and variants
Katė ir pelė, Pelė ir katinas
The circle makes the gates
Circle players have an active task: open a route for the mouse and lower their hands again. Do not grab clothing; the chosen source also states this restriction.
Following the source
Romualdas Povilaitis’s 2017 guide attributes this account to V. Steponaitis’s 1956 publication. It is a teaching-guide version, not an archival record by an identified informant verified for this page.