The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-11

harmony that unites heaven, earth and
man The throw of double five is called
the plum flower, " five and six is the
tigers head, 3" four and six is ''red-head
ten, one and six is "long-legged seven, "
and one and five is red mallet six. "
These terms remind one of those given by
negroes TO various throws at the game Of
craps" On Chinese dice the "one' and
-four are always red, while the dots on
the other faces are black. Mr. Culiu
cannot assign any reason for this with
certainty THERE'S a Legend 10 the effect
that on one occasion an emperor Of the
Ming dynasty was almost defeated in
game by his queen. The only possibility
for him to win was that the dice should
turn up "fours' They did so, and he
was so gratifed that from that time forth
the "fours' on all dice were marked in
red
OFFICIAL PROMOTIONS
Many games are played in China, on
boards and diagrams, the moves being
thrown by throwing dice. lnone Of these,
called the table of theprnmotion of Off
Gals" a large sheet Of paper is used, on
which are printed the titles of various
officials and dignitaries of the Chinese
government. Players are advanced or
set back according to their throws The
story told about the invention of this
game is that the Emperor Kienling, A. ID.
1860 was walking at nightfall among the
houses occupied by candidates for a trien-
NAL examination at Peking. Hearing the
sound of dice throwing in one of the
wellinRs, he sent for tho offender The
latter, as an excuse, told the monarch
thai he had constructed a chart on which
were written the titles belonging TO all
the official positions IN the government.
He said that he and his friends threw
dice, trayersed the board according to
their throws and were thus impressed
with the knowledge of the various ranks
and steps leading TO official advancement.
The emperor commanded him TO bring
the chart for his inspection That night
the unfortunate student, whose excuse
was a fiction created on the spur Of the
moment, sat, pencil in hand, until day
break and made "A chart, which he car
ried to the emperor The latter was
pleased with the diligence Of the scholar,
who improved his mind even while anus
ing himself, and dismissed him with
/ many concentrations
EVOLUTION or CARDS.
! Take an ordinary domino of bone or
/ wood, enlarge IL, make it Of paper, and II
becomes a playing card. Mr.. Culin's
study Of the SUB Get has led him to the
conclusion that this is the way in which
the playing card was originally eyo. we'd.
IUC GNDAhkAbu bNAhh NANiA hiAt hiAuN ~
bone which became cubical die
the latter was transformed into a
domino, and the domino, ia It's turn,
was metamorphosed into a card. A
domjup with TWO Gives on IL represents
the ten SPOT" of the pack The origin OF
"king," queen" and lack" is unknown
Possibly little light may be thrown urOu
the mystery by the fact that the four
sides OF the knuckle bone are called, in
Arabic. the shah" ''vizier' peasant
aud slave" The same MINES are given
10 the numbers on the cubical die, the sis
being the shah One Of the game.
played with dominoes in China Is dppar
/ emily the prototype Of whist Nobody
knows when dominoes and cards were in
troduced into Europe. We, in America
get all our games from Europe we inven
no games. Poker is an old English gam'
modified MIR Culin says that there arr
no new games those brought out from
year 10 year are merely notifications o
old ones. Games arE originated In print
tive stages Of social development,
One would naturally suppose that th
spinning die, called the "teetotem,' mus
be derived from the same original source
as the cubical die Apparently such j.
not the case Mr. Culn has traced TN
teetotem 70 Korea, where IL seems Y
have had its beginning.
{ There are many queer sorts Of playin
cards in the world. Those used Ia Japal
are oblong pieces Of pasteboard will