A very complete account may be expected from Mr. Wilkinson, who has displayed here what is doubtless the most perfect collection of Chinese cards ever exhibited. The miscellaneous cards in this collection are drawn from western China and bear some resemblance, according to Mr. Wilkinson, to the “Proverbs” and “Happy Families” of Europe and America. They include the cards based on a writing lesson, cards based on numbers, and cards based on a lucky formula.
Returning to the subject of dice, the special implements used in dice divination in India are shown, as well as illustrations of the methods employed in telling fortunes with dominoes in China and Korea; these forming part of the material used in the investigation of the origin of dominoes. Japanese and Siamese dice are also exhibited with the East Indian and Chinese specimens, as well as dice made in various parts of Europe, comprising a pair of iron dice purchased at Perugia, which, although presumably modern, have the dots arranged with the 6–5, 4–2, and 3–1 opposite, like those of old Etruria, instead of the sums of the spots on opposite sides being equal to seven, as is otherwise general. With the dice are the spinning dice of various countries, including the East Indian Chukree, the Chinese Ch’e me, and the corresponding dice of Japan and Siam. A variety of dominoes are also displayed, including those of Korea, which are identical with those of China, and the Siamese dominoes, which were also borrowed from the latter country.
The pair of knuckle-bones appear to be the parent of many of that large class of games which Mr. Tylor describes as the “backgammon group.” With reference to dice-backgammon the evidence in this particular is very direct, but the similar games played with cowries and wooden blocks, for which even a greater antiquity may be claimed, there is a likelihood of independent origin. Several games of the latter class from India, North America, and Egypt, types of which have been referred to by Mr. Tylor, are exhibited in this collection. The first, Pachisi, is the most popular game in India. It is played around a board, usually made of cloth, in the form of a cross, according to the throws with cowries. Six or seven shells are ordinarily used, and count according as the apertures fall. When long dice of ivory are employed, the game is called Chausar. This game was introduced from India into the United States, where it was first published in 1860 under the name of Parchesi, and has become very popular. Mr. Cushing has set up beside the Pachisi a Zuñi game, which the Zuñis call Ta sho lí wé, or “wooden cane cards,” and which has many points of resemblance to the East Indian game. The moves are made according to the throws with wooden blocks three inches in length, painted red and black upon their two faces, around a circle of forty stones which is broken at the top and bottom, and the right and left, by four openings called the “Doorways of the four directions.” This game embodies many of the mythical conceptions of the Zuñis. It is played by two or four players, who use colored splints to mark their course around the circle. These splints, which are placed at starting in the doorway to which they correspond, have the following symbolism: At the top, Yellow, North, The Wind, Winter. At the left, Blue, West, Water, Spring. At the bottom, Red, South, Fire, Summer. At the right, White, East, Seed or Earth, Autumn. The colors of the two wooden blocks symbolize the two conditions of man: Red, Light or Wakefulness; Black, Darkness or Sleep. The throws with the blocks, which are tossed, ends down, upon a disc of sandstone placed in the middle of the circle, are as follows: 3 red count 10; 3 black count 5; 2 red and 1 black count 3; 1 red and 2 black count 1.
A count of three red gives another throw. When four play, the North and West move around from right to left, and the South and East from left to right. When a player’s move ends at a division of the circle occupied by his adversaries’ piece, he takes it up and sends it back to the beginning. It is customary to make the circuit of the stones either four or six times, beans or corn of the seven varieties being used as counters. This game forms one of the seven sacred games of the Zuñis, and its antetype, Sho lí we, or “Cane Cards,” is one of the four games that are sacrifices to the God of War and Fate. The sacred form of the game is called Tein thla nah na tá sho lí we, or literally, “Of all the regions wood cane cards, and the blocks which are thrown in it bear complicated marks, consisting of bands of color on one side.” In the sacred game, the players are chosen with great care with reference to their totem, and the region to which it belongs. A much more complete account of this game may be expected from Mr. Cushing himself, from the ample material which he has placed at my disposal. Side by side with Ta sho lí we is the corresponding game as played by the Apache and Navajos, which has been set up by Antonio Apache. It lacks the color symbolism, but the principle is identical. The Navajos call it Set tilth, which Captain John G. Bourke, U. S. A., tells me should be transliterated Tze-chis, or Zse tilth, and means literally, “stonestick.” The circle of stones, he says, is called Tze nasti, “Stone circle.”
Lieut. H. L. Scott, U. S. A., has contributed the implements for a similar game of the Kiowas, which is known as the “Awl Game.” It is called by the Kiowas Zohn ahl, that is, Zohn, “creek,” and ahl, “wood.” A detailed account of it will appear elsewhere, furnished to the writer by Lieutenant Scott, who states that the Comanches have a similar game which they play with eight ahl sticks, which are two feet or more long.
These games are all similar to the Mexican Patoli, as described by the early Spanish chroniclers. A picture of the latter game from an early Hispano-American manuscript, reproduced from the original in Florence by its discoverer, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, is exhibited in this connection. The method of play among the Aztecs is here shown, and it is curious to note that they used a diagram or board in the form of a cross, like that of the East Indian Pachisi. In the Malayan archipelago, a stone is placed in the centre upon which dice are thrown in games, as among the North American Indians. Mr. Tylor has set forth the conclusions which may be drawn from these resemblances, but the matter is still open for discussion. Another game remains to be noticed, played with wooden blocks as dice: the Arab game of Tab, in which men are moved on a board according to the throws of four slips of palm. These slips, about eight inches in length, are left with one face of the natural color, and the other showing the whiter interior of the palm, these sides being called black and white respectively. The throws count as follows: 4 black, 6; 4 white, 4; 3 white, 3; 2 white, 2; 1 white, 1.
The implements displayed for this game were made in the Cairo street. No more curious ethnographical parallels are presented in the Exposition than that of the Arabs in the Plaisance, and the Navajos beside the South Lagoon, both playing these curiously similar games.
CASE VII.
BACKGAMMON, SUGOROKU, AND THE GAME OF GOOSE, EAST INDIAN, JAPANESE, AND SIAMESE CARDS.
According to Mr. Tylor, dice-backgammon makes its appearance plainly in classic history. The game of twelve lines (duodecim scripta) was played throughout the Roman Empire and passed on, with little change, through mediæval Europe, carrying its name of tabulæ, tables; its modern representatives being French Tric trac, English Backgammon, etc. Among the ancient Greeks Kubeia, or “dice playing,” is shown by various classical passages to be of the nature of backgammon. The pearl-inlaid backgammon board here shown is from Damascus, where the game is known as Towla, “tables.” A Siamese board exhibited by the government of Siam, with other games, through its royal commissioner Phra Surya, has departed little from the ancient type. Backgammon is known in China as Sheung Luk, “double sixes,” and in Japan by the corresponding name of Sugoroku. The popular games, both in China and Japan, however, are not played with men upon a set board, but resemble the games with many stations, which are common in Europe and America.
The most notable of the Chinese games of this class is the one which is called Shing kun to, or “The Tables of the Promotion of Officials,” a game which has been known to scholars, through Dr. Hyde’s account, as “The Game of the Promotion of Mandarins.” It is played by two or more persons upon a large paper diagram, upon which are printed the titles of the different officials and dignitaries of the Chinese government. The moves are made according to the throws with four cubical dice, and the players, whose positions upon the diagram are indicated by notched or colored splints, are advanced or set back, according to their throws. The paper chart here exhibited was purchased in a Chinese shop in New York city. It was printed in Canton, and bears an impression about twenty-three inches square. This is divided into sixty-three compartments, exclusive of the central one and the place for entering at the lower right-hand corner. The latter contains the names of thirteen different starting-points, from yan shang, or “Honorary Licentiate,” down to t’ung shang, or “student,” between which are included the positions of t’ín man shang, “astrologer,” and í shang, “physician.” These are entered at the commencement of the game by the throws of “three, four, five, six,” three “fours,” three “sixes,” three “fives,” three “threes,” three “twos,” and three “ones;” and then in the same manner double “fours,” and so on down to double “ones.”