This is mostly hearsay, but I do know that this game was played in inner-city Wilmington, Delaware ( I have many friends from there) in the mid-80’s under the name “relievio” and games lasted several days, and encompassed several square miles of territory. Each team had a home base, and “teams” would remain constant throught a summer, with challenges being issued from one team to another and lasting until one team or the other was finally all caught. Players had “positions” to play, and teams typically encompased ages from 6 to 16.

I grew up in southern New Hampshire, and we had a similar game called “team tag” (OK, we’re bland and had no creativity). It was like the New York version of “ringaleavio” with a single team being “it” though there was no real hiding, since we played in an open field. Players were freed from, Jail via a single tag, and a whole line of players could form so long as one was actuall topuching “jail.”