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You would usually hear the cries on otherwise slow mornings or idle afternoons. From nowhere discernible they broke the quiet calm of omnipresent greens and the gentle provincial breeze blowing in from the fields, like a hide-and-seeker teasing whoever’s it. That is, until you brought your gaze downward to the earth, where you would find two to four youths squatting, some guarding something in the soil (a marble either in or just outside the hole, you discover) with their hands or a slipper made to stand on its side, while the others would be leaning over from four to five steps away, one eye in a squint while at the other was a hand holding their own marble, ready to strike. If the marble hits, you could most certainly expect once again that jubilant shout: SUNSON! “Sunson” was the culmination of a rather complicated game of kuryendo. It was the punishment of the loser, the incompetent, the impertinent challenger, often resulting in red spots along the fingers (for those who were brave or imprudent enough to not use slippers) or an extremely lengthy score-racking penalty, depending on the accuracy of the throwing winner. A glossary of terms: Agsunson | n. the winner in a game of kuryendo. He gets to sunson. | Bots | n. a state in which the kuryendo has fallen into the hole; ety. probably a corruption of “abot (hole)”; usually converted into a verb, as in, “i-bots mo (shoot it)!” | Bugguong | n. the sorry state of being the subject of a very long sunson, as when the winner is deadly accurate in hitting the loser’s marble, making sunson point after sunson point; has reference to the native pasty fish sauce, which is made to sit for a very long time before being released and marketed. | Bulintik | n. a strong release done by forcefully flicking out the thumb from a closed fist, with the kuryendo as projectile nestled in the folded forefinger and against the hammering thumbnail; usually used in a padagas. | Dam-eg | n. a position in which a player, in a very exaggerated effort to reach for the hole so bots-ing is easier or the chances of hitting a kuryendo are bigger, balances by leaning on the earth by the base of his palm; this is tapo. (alter. agdam-eg) | Kuryendo | n. marble; may also refer to the game they are used in, as in, “agkuryendo tayo (let’s play kuryendo)!” | Padagas | adv. descriptive of a technique used to skip having to bots in by hitting another player’s kuryendo; literally, “passing by” referring to a kuryendo hitting that of another player but maintaining enough force and movement to make it just near the hole next to the one that player is skipping. | Pangina | n. the act of a loser trying to make it more difficult for the person doing sunson to hit the kuryendo by pressing it into the earth not quite outside the hole. see infra. | Paspasurot | n. a newbie in the game, unskilled or unlearned in the rules; usually, a younger kid wanting to play with the gang. | Patayyek | adv. a manner of making bots in which the player sends the kuryendo out with a spin; done by holding the kuryendo between the thumb and fore or middle finger, squeezing it into a flick – suddenly letting the kuryendo roll under and out from the upper holding finger, with the thumb following through. | Patulid | n. a manner of making bots by simply rolling the kuryendo on the ground without spin or any fancy trick; the player holds the kuryendo on an open palm, secured only by the thumb, then swings back and releases the marble; it is the lowest in the rung of skills, usually employed by a paspasurot | Sunson | n. 1. the penalty round of kuryendo; 2. also, the score during such penalty round, punctuated by shouting the word every time the point is won. cf. detailed explanation infra. | Tapo | n. a forbidden state, as when either the kuryendo thrown at or the kuryendo thrown ends up in the hole, or the player is agdam-eg (see dam-eg, supra.) | Now, then. There were three holes, the size and depth of which were usually what a bottle cap could dig by pressing its edge to the earth and rotating it. This made a small bowl. Sometimes, to make things more interesting, the holes were made by putting kuryendo down and gently hammering it into the soft soil with a stone, until just the tip remained. The indentation, just as wide as the kuryendo, would be it. The holes were usually four or five steps apart, depending on the size of the players. The general rule was to have the holes in a straight line. But if the players cannot find a stretch of flat, stone-free earth long enough, a curving track did as well, as long as the distance between holes was the same. The starting line was drawn the same distance from the first hole. Play could be in singles, up to three, or doubles at two teams battling it out. In the singles game, the players simply took turns. The goal is to bots the kuryendo in all the holes, up to the third, and back, before anyone else. Bots-ing is done patayyek or by pitik, depending on the player’s level of skill. Dam-eg not allowed. The paspasurot, though, was permitted to make dam-eg, and even patulid. But the game is not just a matter of sending the ball into the hole. If you missed, that would give the next player a choice between trying to hit your kuryendo so he can skip this hole and move on to the next, or bots-ing first then hitting your kuryendo so he can skip the hole next to this one, depending on what’s more convenient, and doable (the accurate throwers had a very easy time). To do this, he could either throw, or, if the kuryendo was near, use a bulintik, because the force would be enough for a padagas. If your kuryendo was hit by a passing player, you had to go back to the starting line. First to finish all the holes and back gets to sunson. The agsunson positioned himself at the starting line while the loser was at the first hole, facing the former. The latter then placed his kuryendo in the hole, then either stood a slipper on its side behind the hole, or if he was confident the agsunson would not hit his hand, use that instead. The slipper or the hand served as a wall behind the hole, so the thrown kuryendo would not go far; it would just hit the wall, and might even fall into the hole afterwards, creating a tapo (this is allowed, rather than having the inconvenience of picking up the kuryendo at a distance if thrown unhindered). Hitting the kuryendo in the hole and forcing it out in the process won you one sunson (SUNSON!). This means the agsunson had one more sunson round. If the agsunson did not make such a hit, the loser then placed his kuryendo outside the hole, just in front of it. Annoying losers made pangina. Making pangina, however, could be stipulated on before a game. If the agsunson hits the kuryendo outside the hole, the loser puts it back in the hole. The cycle repeats. Three hits outside the hole equals one sunson round (SUNSON!). If the agsunson’s kuryendo or that of the loser accidentally rolled into the hole anytime during sunson, that was tapo, and sunson was over. Another game would start. The doubles game was the same, except the teammates did not play one after the other. Opposing players did, so that the teammates were the first and the third, and the second and the fourth. Anyone could play. Any paspasurot could be allowed to join, but most of the time begrudgingly, just to prevent any baby-crying. The game picked neither sex nor season. All we needed was a little damp, flat section of earth. We could last all day, save those times when shouts of SUNSON! got prevailed over by another, more authoritative exclamation: MANGAN! |
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