THE COIN GAME
A coin is thrown against the wall. The player whose coin springs back farthest from the wall begins. He throws his coin in any direction, and it is agreed upon that the other players must throw their coins so as to fall at such or such a distance from the place where his is lying. Those who manage to do this, or get closest to the mark, win, those who are farthest off lose.
This game used formerly to be played by the ladies of the Court, but now-a-days it is only played by children in the streets.
CHAPTER XXXIII
GAMES OF CHANCE
CARD GAMES
Our card games are more complicated than those played in Europe. One of the reasons of this is the number of cards in the Chinese pack, which contains 120, subdivided into four classes, corresponding with four colours, and into thirty species. There are thus only four cards of each species, and thirty of each class.
The pack includes nine cords; the first cord, the second cord, and so on, up to the ninth cord; nine cakes; nine faces; a red man; a civilian; and a butterfly.
Different kinds of games can, of course, be played with the same kind of cards.