The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-03
EVOLUTION OF GAMBLING.
The knucEle-BOnes of sheep the ORR
gin Of Dice and Cards.
london Public Opinion.

1OAAt0 - aRAA( AAAAO
Who would suppose that playing cards
were originally derived from the knuckle
bones of sheep? Yet such is a fact No
employed for playing games. One day it
occurred to somebody that a cube wes bet
ter adapted 70 the purpose. That must
for the Romans OF old had dice which
We're just like our own, even to the ar
rangement Of the numbers on the faces
1. e., the six opposite the one. the five OPP
posite the two, and the four opposite the
three. 1t will be observed that the. sum
of any two opposite numbers is always
seven. This may have something to do
with the fact that seven used to be re-
spect accorded to it there is evidence in
many passages OF the Bible. The most
an ancient cubical die known dates back to
1t was found at Naucratus, a Greek
colony in Egypt. The earliest dice were
made in pairs, rights and lefts, like
knuckle bones, one Of which was always
from the right leg and the other from thu
left leg of the animal Two die were
knuckle bones. From that country they
were carried to China, whence they have
Chinese are great gamesters; they invented
a modification Of the dice, which Is called
the domino and : Put tit two dice faces side by
are said to have been devised In the year
n2O of the Christian era by q Chinese EN-
AS there are twenty-one possible throws
with two dice. so twenty-one dominoe0
may be regarded as natural dominoes.
some of the number so as to make a full
set for playing thirty-two In all. All over
Eastern Asia the customary outfit Of dom
inoes is thirty-two. Our dominoes, obtained
and are modified by the Introduction OF
America is the match game. 1t is played
in China, but is an unimportant one among
Chinese domino games are ali of them
dice games elaborated. Dominoes are also
used in China, Xix dice. for fortune telling.
literature of its own. The Chinese dominoes
all have astrological names. In China cos
the dice aeal''t Six ! is s Seet throw % tic to h heHUsIs a oe
Is the throw to earth, four is the throw
to man, while one N three are chosen
double i've is called the plum hover.
six is 'red-head ten" one n six is
'long-legged seven and one and five is
. orea-m and .f sax,. On Chinese hin lice ,s the
the dots on the other faces are black.
There Is a legend to the fact that on one
was almost defeated in a game by his
queen: The only possibility for him to win
was that the dice should turn up. .fours."
They did So, and lie was so grati1ed that
from that time forth the 'fours'' on all
dice were marked in red.
Take an ordinary domino of bone or
wood. enlarge it, make it of paper. and
It becomes a playing card: Mr.. Culin's
STUDY or the subject has led him to the
conclusion that this is the way In which
the playing card was originally evolved.
The evolution began with the knuckle
bone, which became a cubical die: the lat
ter was transformed into a domino, and
the domino, in its turn was me~tamorphosed
into a card. A domino with two s.fves''
on IT represents the ten spot of the pack.
IS unknown. Possibly a little light may b
thrown upon the mystery by the fact that
the four sides of the knuckle bone are
called in Arabic. the SHAH" .vizier,''
peasant and slave" The same names
are given to the numbers on the cubical
die, the six being the SHAH One Of the
games played with dominoes in China il
apparently the prototype of whist. Mo-
body knows when dominoes and cards were
introduced into Europe.