Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1903-04-16


vices omake the dice feome IN ine
manner best adapted 20 separate tne
PLAYER from his sesteaees-
The great and noble Assurbanipal
Of Assyria loved - daily with the
kubos. They were dice made 'of
glazed baked clay. Besides being
q great gambler Assurbanipal was
a great art .coilecs : like Mr.. Can
field, and he left fine library ef
ear,hern tiles full 81 the history q
his life aad othex soral storics.
Wherever ancient dice are found,
all sorts Of receptacles are found
with them, shaped in many ways,
but all devised to make the gambler
"shake fair" An old Etruscan dice
cup of this kind is conical, with the
interior formed of different steps. 10
prevent the Son of Fortune from Civ
ing his ma any extraneous aid.
The father of all the gambling
games was game which still is the
national game Of Korea under the
name of nyout. It is played with
board marked out with series oil
circles. The players use four slaves
which they throw as dice are thrown,
and, according to their throws, they
move counters around the board.
The counters are called men" in
Korea, as they are called in practi-
cally all the world. The name orr
ginated with the ancient Chinese,
who were as inveterate gamblers
then as they are now.
The Papa Of 'Em All.
i Nyout is the prototype OF all the
modern games known as Fox and
lGeese, Game ofGeese, Steeple Chase,
Snake Game, and the scores Of 9th
| ers that are based on the same prin
ciple.
| The old Hindpo game OF Pachesi
known in this country as Parchesi
also is based on the game OF Nyout
/ The University OF .Penpsylvani'
has collected l45 games OF diferen
countries all based directly on th'
game of Goose and indirectly on tb
Il game of Nyout.
i A popular Korean form OF the gam
that is played nII.ch today is Ty
jong- -Kyong- To, in which o five-sid
ed staye is used instead Of cubica
"'.e ',ssiye and simple form G
"A pril- by Philippine gam
game Is use0 puagitan. Th
oiers. Iney call it = ing ON .th
players draw q two-foot Il. 20
ground or floor with a small ri,.
about an inch drawn in the center
In 1t lies a small shell. Each PLAYER
has a somewhat larger white shell
which he throws to see who shall
play first. The shell that falls mouth
up wins.
The winning player then places
his shell at any point on the edge of
the big circle and shoots it at the
small shell in the middle circle. If
ne succeeds in knocking the little
shell clean out of the large circle. he
wins whatever has been staked.
The Arapaho Indians use five dice
of buffalo bone marked on one side
with burned designs. The dice cup
is a woven grass basket nine inches
in diameter and two inches deep.
The game Is played by tossing the
dice up from the basket and letting
them drop back into it. The play
ers score according to the points
made. The Arapaho women often
stake everything except their more
or less immortal souls in this game.
The unlaundered Eskimo plays
with ivory dice carved into images
of birds. These are shaken in the
hand and thrown upward. The win
ner is he who throws so that the
greatest number of dice land in an
upright position.
Slaves the First Outfit.
The use of slaves as dice is the
most ancient form of gambling, and
is still the most widespread among
all races except the highly civilized,
who apparently prefer hold-outs and
other Caucasian products of culture.
Almost all the Indians of America
from Cape Horn to Alaska use slaves
in some form or other. Sometimes
they are used in the form Of arrows,
which are thrown as far as possible
by the players. At other times they
use beautifully colored and marked
slaves, which have values according
to their markings.
Many Chinese, East Indian and
Pacific Island gambling games Of to-
day are played with slaves or throw
sticks.
The sad thing about il is that gam
bling with slaves originated as re-
ligious ceremony In the days of in
cantation and divination. The slaves