The Basilinda[[495]] was a game in which one obtained by lot the rank of king, and the vanquished, whether one or many, became subject to him, to do whatever he should order. It passed down to the Christians, and was more especially practised during the feast of the Epiphany. It is commonly known under the name of Forfeits, and was formerly called “One penny,” “One penny come after me,” “Questions and commands,” “The choosing of king and queen on Twelfth night.” In the last-mentioned sense it is still prevalent in France, where it is customary for bakers to make a present to the families they serve, of a large cake in the form of a ring in which a small kidney bean has been concealed. The cake is cut up, the pieces are distributed to the company, and the person who gets the bean is king of the feast. This game entered in Greece likewise into the amusements of grown people, both men and women, as well as of children, and an anecdote, connected with it, is told of Phryne, who happened one day to be at a mixed party where it was played. By chance it fell to her lot to play the queen; upon which, observing that her female companions were rouged and lilied to the eyes, she maliciously ordered a basin and towel to be brought in, and that every woman should wash her face. Conscious of her own native beauty, she began the operation, and only appeared the fresher and more lovely. But alas for the others! When the anchusa, psimmuthion, and phukos had been removed by the water, their freckled and coarse skins exposed them to general laughter.[[496]]
The Ostrakinda was a game purely juvenile. A knot of boys having drawn a line on the ground, separated into two parties. A small earthenware disk or ostrakon, one side black with pitch, the other white, was then produced, and each party chose a side, white or black. The disk was then pitched along the line, and the party whose side came up was accounted victorious, and prepared to pursue while the others turned round and fled. The boy first caught obtained the name of the ass, and was compelled to sit down, the game apparently proceeding till all were thus caught and placed hors de combat. He who threw the ostrakon cried, “night or day,” the black side being termed night, and the opposite day. It was called the “Twirling of the ostrakon.” Plato alludes to it in the Phædros.[[497]]
The Dielkustinda, “French and English,” was played chiefly in the palæstra, and occasionally elsewhere. It consisted simply in two parties of boys laying hold of each other by the hand, and pulling till one by one the stronger had drawn over the weaker to their side of the ground.
The Phryginda was a game in which, holding a number of smooth and delicate fragments of pottery between the fingers of the left hand, they struck them in succession with the right so as apparently to produce a kind of music.[[498]]
There was another game called Kyndalismos, played with short batons, and requiring considerable strength and quickness of eye. A stick having been fixed up-right in a loose moist soil, the business was to dislodge it by throwing at it other batons from a distance; whence the proverb, “Nail is driven out by nail, and baton by baton.”[[499]] A person who played at this game was called by some of the Doric poets Kyndalopactes.[[500]] A similar game is played in England, in which the prize is placed upon the top of the upright stick. The player wins when the prize falls without the hole whence the upright has been dislodged.
The game of Ascoliasmos[[501]] branched off into several varieties, and afforded the Athenian rustics no small degree of sport. The first and most simple form consisted in hopping on one foot, sometimes in pairs, to see which in this way could go furthest. On other occasions the hopper undertook to overtake certain of his companions who were allowed the use of both legs. If he could touch one of them he came off conqueror. This variety of the game appears to have been the Empusæ ludus of the Romans. “Scotch hoppers,” or “Fox to thy hole,” in which boys, hopping on one leg, beat one another with gloves or pieces of leather tied at the end of strings, or knotted handkerchiefs, as in the diable boîteux of the French. At other times victory depended on the number of hops, all hopping together and counting their springs,—the highest of course winning. But the most amusing variety of the game was that practised during the Dionysiac festival of the Askolia. Skins filled with wine or inflated with air, and extremely well oiled, were placed upon the ground, and on these the shoeless rustics leaped with one leg and endeavoured to maintain a footing, which they seldom could on account of their slipperiness. However, he who succeeded carried off the skin of wine as his prize.
A game, evidently also of rustics, was the Trygodiphesis, Tantali ludus, “Bobbing for cherries,” “Bob cherry,” in which something very nice was thrown into a bowl of wine lees, which the performer, with his hands behind his back, was to fish up with his lips. The fun was to see the ludicrous figure he cut with his face daubed and discoloured by the lees.
Phitta Maliades, Phitta Meliai, Phitta Rhoiai, “Hasten, nymphs!” may be regarded as exclamations of encouragement uttered by Dorian girls, when engaged in a race.[[502]]
Playing at ball was common, and received various names. Episkyros, Phæninda, Aporraxis and Ourania. The first of these games was also known by the names of the Ephebike and the Epikoinos. It was played thus: a number of young men assembling together in a place covered with sand or dust, drew across it a straight line, which they called Skyros, and at equal distances, on either side, another line. Then placing the ball on the Skyros, they divided into two equal parties, and retreated each to their lines, from which they immediately afterwards rushed forward to seize the ball. The person who picked it up, then cast it towards the extreme line of the opposite party, whose business it was to intercept and throw it back, and they won who by force or cunning compelled their opponents to overstep the boundary line.
Daniel Souter[[503]] contends that this was the English game of football, into which perhaps it may, in course of time, have been converted. This rough and, it must be confessed, somewhat dangerous sport, originally, in all probability, introduced into this country by the Romans, may still on Shrove Tuesday be witnessed in certain towns of South Wales. The balls consist of bulls’ bladders protected by a thick covering of leather, and blown tight. Six or eight are made ready for the occasion, every window in the town is shut by break of day, at which time all the youths of the neighbourhood assemble in the streets. The ball is then thrown up in front of the town-hall, and the multitude, dividing into two parts, strive with incredible eagerness and enthusiasm to overcome their antagonists, each endeavouring to kick the foot-ball to the other extremity of the town. In the struggle severe kicks and wounds are given, and many fierce battles take place. The ball sometimes mounts thirty or forty feet above the tops of the highest houses and falls far beyond, or goes right over into the gardens, whither it is immediately followed by a crowd of young men. The sport is kept up all day, the hungry combatants recruiting their strength from time to time by copious horns of ale, and an abundant supply of the nice pancakes which the women sell in baskets at the corner of every street. To view this sport, thousands of persons assemble from all the country round, so that to the secluded population of those districts it is in some sort what the battle in the Platanistas was to the Spartans, or even what the Isthmian and Nemean games were to the whole of Greece.