Elephant's foot umbrella stand is a parlour game

Parlour game

A parlour game is a group game played indoors. During the Victorian era in Great Britain and in the United States, these games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes. They were often played in a parlour, hence the name....

that can be played with a various number of players, in which preferably only one of the participating players is familiar with the game.

Game play

Play takes the form of rotating around the group of players, each player adding an item of their choosing to a list. The item is then either allowed or disallowed by the player(s) familiar with the rules based upon the logic to the game. The basis of the game is to not only to remember the list, which can be difficult as the game progresses, but also to work out the logic behind what items are allowed.

For example, the game may start as such:

• Player 1: "I went to the shop and I bought an elephant's foot umbrella stand".
• Player 2: "I went to the shop and I bought an elephant's foot umbrella stand and a large orange plate".
• Player 1, or the player who knows the rules, would then allow or refuse the new item.

Play then continues in this manner until everybody has worked out the logic.

Solution

The logic behind the game is that each new item must begin with the next letter of the phrase 'elephant's foot umbrella stand'. In the example above, the addition of the second item "large orange plate" would be allowed since the item begins with the letter "L", the second letter of the phrase 'elephant's foot umbrella stand'. The third item, in order to be allowed, would have to begin with the letter "E".