When numbers accompany the bell, hammer, or bell and hammer, the cashier is to pay the counters, to the amount of numbers thrown, to the holder of such card, from the pool; but if numbers are thrown unaccompanied, the cashier then pays to the thrower.
When the pool is nearly empty there arises an advantage to the inn, for if a player throws a figure greater than the quantity contained in the pool he pays the overplus to the inn; thus: suppose 4 are in the pool, if the players throws 10, he is to pay 6 to the inn; and if 2 are thrown, those 2 are paid to him from the pool, and so on till a figure is thrown which clears the pool, and so concludes the game.
If all blanks are thrown after the inn begins to receive, the players pay nothing, but the owner of the white horse pays one to the inn; and should the bell, &c. be thrown with the blanks, the holder of that card pays one to the inn; and if numbers accompany the bell, &c. the holder of that card must pay to the inn the number thrown above those remaining in the pool. Nuts are sometimes used as counters, and the players keep their winnings. Sometimes the cashier receives a halfpenny or a penny a dozen for the counters, and when the game is finished the receipts are divided among the players according to their winnings. Those who do not hold cards frequently find themselves richer at the close of the game than their speculative companions, whose winnings do not always exceed the price paid for their cards.
SPELICANS.
Spelicans are made of thin pieces of ivory cut into different forms, some being like spears, others saws, bearded hooks, &c.; of some of the patterns there are duplicates, whilst of others only one. Each pattern has a value assigned to it, the lowest being five, and the highest forty; the numbers do not run in regular succession—as five, six, seven, eight—but irregularly, as five, sixteen, twenty-five. Hooks, made of bone, are used pointers.
The game is played as follows:—One player should take up all the spelicans in a bundle, and holding them at a little height from the table, let them fall down in a confused heap on it; each player must then try alternately to take away a spelican from the heap without moving any of the others, and this it is generally very easy to accomplish at the first, for the top ones are mostly unconnected with the rest, but as the players proceed it requires some tact to jerk them out, with the help of the hook, made pointed for that purpose. The player who, at the entire removal of the heap, has the greatest number of spelicans, wins the game. Should any of the spelicans, while being removed shake the others, they must be put back into the heap again. It is usual in some places, instead of each player removing a spelican alternately, for one to continue lifting up the spelicans until he happens to shake one, when another player takes his turn until he in like manner fails, when another tries his fortune; and so the game continues, until all the spelicans are withdrawn.
PART II.
Athletic Sports and Manly Exercises:
INCLUDING