THE CANDLESTICK
This game is also a very ancient one, and consists in getting a person to guess what object is hidden under a bell of non-transparent material, metal or china. Those who guess must not name the object directly, but must compose a quatrain referring to it.
For instance, supposing a lizard has been hidden, this is how a clever player would tell us that he had guessed it:
“It is not a dragon, for it has no horns;
It is not a serpent, for it has feet;
It can divide itself, and it can climb up walls.
It is a lizard.”
One day three objects were hidden under the bell—a swallow’s egg, a piece of honeycomb, and a spider. The following were the quatrains which revealed the nature of the hidden objects:—
“The first is one of the beloved of spring, who climbs on the roofs of the drawing-rooms.
When the male or the female is fledged,
It at once spreads out its wings.
It is a swallow’s egg.
The second is a house hung upside down.
It has a multitude of doors and windows.
The sweetest fluid is stored up in it.
And its inhabitants multiply in it.
It is a honeycomb.
The third resembles a long-footed slug.
It produces threads for making nets,
Into which all falls for its nourishment.
It is night which makes it happy.
It is a spider.”
Other guessers were still more skilful, albeit they did not compose quatrains.
A Sovereign had placed a white bird under a bell, and ordered his Minister to guess. He answered that the emperor could not force him to guess. When he was asked why not, he said, “Let him, first of all, let his white bird escape.”
On another occasion a rat was hidden. Everybody said it was a rat. But one very clever player insisted that there were four rats under the bell. The bell was removed, and it was found that, true enough, there were four rats. Whilst she had been in confinement, the rat had given birth to three little ones.
Guessing is done by means of the Koua, or diagrams, of which I have spoken elsewhere.