Many writers consider that the Roman Latronculi and the Greek Digrammisnios were games of Chess or Draughts. A Spaniard, named Antonio Torquemada, published rules for the latter as early as 1547, and a Frenchman, named Pierre Malet, described the Parisian game in 1668. The latter called for a board of sixty-four squares, the men moving but one block at a time, and the crowned pieces having the right to move backwards. The game was not popular in France until the days of the Regency, when the Polish game, that is played on a board with one hundred squares, each player having twenty pieces, became the vogue.

This variation of the old game of Draughts was introduced by a man named Manoury, who started life as a waiter in one of the cafés. He gave lessons to Marshal Saxe and Jean Jacques Rousseau, besides writing out the rules governing the game for the use of his pupils.

In France and England players use the black squares on the Checker board, but in Holland and Russia the white ones are those that are favoured, and it is strange how puzzling this slight change is to unaccustomed players.

Draughtsmen or checkers are made of many different materials, such as clay, bone, wood, and ivory. Some old ones in the British Museum are of ivory, two inches in diameter, and were found in Leicestershire. On one of them is a figure like Il Pendu, or the Hanged Man, of the Atouts. In the writer’s collection there are some draughtsmen of unpainted wood most beautifully carved. One of them displays a winged figure with a cap of Mercury hanging over his head, on top of which is perched a die, a Four Spot on one side of it, while the other displays an Ace. The cap is suspended in the air over a table covered with a fringed cloth, on which rests a rose and a laurel wreath. A motto surrounding the checker reads: Fert Praemia Favsta. On the reverse is a hand emptying a purse on a Backgammon board, the legend being Freqvens Tibidissipat Avrum. Another checker, a mate to the above, shows a table on which is a Backgammon board and two players busy over the game. The man is seated, while the woman is standing with arms upraised, and having evidently just lost a game, is upbraiding her companion. The motto is Ars Sortem Corrigat Astx. The reverse shows a draped Cupid opening a money chest, the motto being Sat Loevlo Havt Ocvio. A black man of this set shows a warrior talking to a harpist, the motto being Juam Rari Amici Chari. The reverse shows a figure of Mercury, as Luck, with a philosopher and a courtier trying to hold the flying figure with ropes that have been thrown around the waist of the flitting god. The motto is Ah Fortuna Bona Me Condona. These checkers are part of a set that was once in Lady Charlotte Schriber’s collection of games. They are probably of German manufacture, as they closely resemble sets of draughtsmen that are in the Nuremburg and Munich collections.

In Korea the game of Draughts is a favourite one. The pieces are not flat and round, like those of Europe, but the “horses,” as they are named in Korea, have shanks about two inches long, with round, solid bases, making them easy to pick up and move, but they would be awkward if the game called for “jumping,” as does that of European players. With this exception, the rules for playing resemble those common in Europe.

The Japanese, the Siamese, and the Chinese all play the game with the assistance of dice, and the men as well as the boards show an origin common with those already mentioned. They are games of luck or chance, but are not used for fortune-telling, and have nothing in common with cards, arrow divination, or prophesying, unless students can hereafter trace them to the Urim and Thummim of the Bible.

Games with dice are favourites in all Asiatic countries, but the men themselves and the games played with them are far more elaborate and scientific than those of Europe, and capable of a great variety of combinations quite unknown to English-speaking nations. The mathematical calculations necessary for the Asiatic games are intricate and complicated, but well worthy of adoption.

About 1815 the Germans issued a pack of cards that had dice on them instead of the commonplace pips. The set in the writer’s collection is incomplete and incomprehensible without the rules, that have been lost. The cards have the dice on the lower half, while the upper part displays different designs, such as a diligence, a ship, a bookcase, and an easy chair. The two designs last mentioned have “doctor” printed under them.

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