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.
Sources: Teaching-guide variant attributed to V. Steponaitis
Original factual summary of the one-circle, one-pair rules. Group size and space description are practical recommendations.
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.