The feather game, officially titled, "the flying feather," is designed for females and is quite simple: a group of females stand in a circle and attempt to pass the feather to their neighbor using just their breath. Those who fail at this task are forced to pay a forfeit.		The knife game, more commonly referred to as the "balanced stick," demands a stick the length of the hand to be balanced on one finger with two knives inserted into the top at a 45 degree downward angle. The object is to keep the stick balanced. The knives make the game seem more difficult whne in fact, they actually aid in the balancing of the stick.
A circle amuse themselves by blowing, one to the other, a feather, a light tuft of unspun cotton, or silk; in a word, anything that is light enough to be kept up by breath. Each one is anxious enough to pass it to her neighbor; because if it falls upon the floor, or upon her own clothes, she must pay a forfeit. Sometimes it is blown too violently, and it will fligh so high that the next person will have to stretch her neck in order to get a puff at it; at other times the breath is so feeble, that the feather will descend; sometimes it flies sideways, or behind the circle, so that one must turn her head suddenly to catch it. It looks very droll to see a whole circle turning, and twisting, and puffing to keep up one poor little feather.		Procure a piece of wood about the length of your hand, half and inch thick and twice as broad; within a shirt distance of the end of this piece, thrust in the points of the blades of two penknives of equal weight, in such a manner, that one of them may incline to one side, the second to the other, as represented by the cut in the margin. If the other extremity be pleaced at the tip of the finger, the stick will keep itself upright without falling; and if it be made to incline, it will raise itself again and recover its former situation. This is a very pretty performance, and, if properly managed, cannot fail to excite some surprisein the minds of those who behold it for the first time, as the knives, instead of appearing to balance the stick, which they in fact do, will rather appear to increase the difficulty of the feat.