CASE I.
PUZZLES, CHILDREN’S GAMES, MANCALA.
The ingenious objects which we designate as “puzzles” are represented by about one hundred and twenty-five specimens exhibited by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. They begin with a collection of East Indian puzzles “invented” by Aziz Hussan of Saharanpore, among which may be seen many types of puzzles that are common in Europe and America. The Chinese puzzles of wood, bone, and ivory follow them. Chinese puzzles, long a household word, are very limited in number. Those which are made for export are invariable in form, and consist of the familiar “Ring Puzzle,” the “Geometrical Puzzle,” and the “Dissected Cube.” Their Chinese names are all descriptive, and the “Ring Puzzle,” which they call “The Nine Interlinked Rings,” was probably borrowed by Chinese from India. The number of types in the entire series of puzzles is surprisingly small. The one that was revived some years since under the name of the “Fifteen Puzzle,” and which was described by an English writer some two hundred years ago, has suggested a large group. “Pigs in Clover,” an American invention, is the most recent addition to the world’s amusements of this character, and its wide diffusion and popularity is shown here in a great variety of specimens from different countries.
Some of the simpler amusements of children are suggested by the objects on the north side of this case. Here are to be seen Mr. William Wells Newell’s “Games and Songs of American Children,” and “The Counting-out Rhymes of Children,” by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton, two books which may be regarded as classical in their particular field. Mr. Pak Yong Kiu, of the Corean Commission to the Columbian Exposition, has furnished the following interesting addition to the collection of children’s counting-out rhymes:—
Hau al ta
Tu al da
Som a chun
Na al da,
Yuk nong,
Ku chi,
Pol ta,