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This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de rMuction indiqud ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X 12X 16X 20X V a4X 28X 32X Th« copy filmad h«r« has b««n reproduced thanks to tha ganarosity of: Library Division Provincial Archives of British Columbia L'axamplaira filmi fut raproduit grAca A la gAnArositi da: Library Division Provincial Archives of British Columbia Tha imagas appearing hara ara tha bast quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in Icaeping with the filming contract specifications. Las imagas suivantes ont AtA reproduites avac la plus grand soin, compta tenu de la condition at da la nattetA de Texemplaira f ilmA. et en conformity avac las conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrs'sd impres- sion, or the bacic cover when appropriate. 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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartas, planches, tableaux, etc., peuver* Atre filmAs A des taux da rMuction diffirants. Lorsqua le document est trop grand pour Atre raproduit an un seul clichA. il est filmA A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, an prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaira. Las diagrammas suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^\ ON AMERICAN L0T-GAME8 AS EVIDENCE m ASIATIC INTERCOURSE HF^FOUE THE IIMK OK (0LrMnr8. BY E;. IB. T "^ ILj O IK , SL'panit-Abili'Ui'k uus: ., liit(>i'iuitiuiuil('N Afiliiv fiir KtliiuiHrniiliio", Suppl. /u Ril. IX. ISftfi. J.EIDKN. -- E. J. UKILL. - 1896. 'ti /\ ON AMERICAN LOT-GAMES AS EVIDENCE OF ASIATIC INTEilCOURSE BEFORE THE TIME OF COLUMBUS. BY B. T -^Srij O 13, Separat-Abdruck aus: „Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie" , Suppl. zu Bd. IX. 1896. LEIDEN. - E. J. BRILL. - 1896. 230053 ^fj I ON AMERICAN LOT-GAMES, AS EVIDENCE OF ASIATIC INTERCOURSE BEFORE THE TIME OF COLUMBUS. BY E. B. T Y L 11 (With plate V.) It is no'7 nearly twenty years since I brouglit forward in the Journal of the Anthiopohgical Institute and elsewhere >) a comparison between two elaborate games of mingled chance and skill, namely pachisi, an ancient and still popular sport in Hindustan, and patolli, which was an established diversion in Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. My argument was that the principle and even the details of these two games bear so close a resemblance, as to make their independent invention improbable, justifying the inference that at some date before 1500 the Asiatic game had passed over to America. Such a theory, if well-founded, supports the opinion long ago enunciated by Alexander von Humboldt, that the old civilization of Mexico bears unmistakable traces of Asiatic influence. Accordingly , the problem of the two games became matter of anthro- pological controversy, their alleged connexion being claimed by some as convincing, and by others not less positively rejected , while admitted on both sides as bringing to a defi- nite issue the question of American civilization before the European period. New evidence which has since come in , makes it desirable for me to return to the discussion. Especially not only has the text of Father Diego Duran's History of the Indies been published, but the picture-wi-iting on which he commented has been reproduced ; his chapter on i}atoni is thus fully available, and with it the authentic representation of two Aztecs playing the game, which is here copied in Plate V, Fig. 2. I have to thank Sir Alfred Lyall for providing the fit pendant to this picture by having a photograph taken in India, oi a match at pachisi between a Hindu and a Mohammedan, from which Fig. 1 is a copy. The mere comparison of the two groups seems to me sufficient to set up a prima facie case, that the gamesters of the Old and New AVorld a'e engaged at games which, though not quite the same, are closely connected varieties from one original. ■) On the Game of PatoUi in Ancient Mexico and i/^Pr'^bably Asiatic Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great lintain and Ireland, 1878. - Backgammon among the Aztecs, in Macmillan's Magazine, Dec. 1878, etc. etc. 55 I - 4 - The group to which pachiHi and patolli belong is most faniiliiii' to Europeans in trictrac or backgammon, tiiough some other fbrmw are in use, such as the "royal game of goose" (Jen de I'oio, juego do la oca, &(•) and various race-games and others. In their complete forms, games of this class are played by opponents who move pieces on a diagram or board in opposition to one another, the number of places moved being dotormined by the players throwing lots or dice. It has to be noticed that just as dice- throwing by itself serves as a moans of gambling, so it is with lot-throwing, the appearance of which latter in America has to form part of the present argument. Dice and their use need no special remark here, but this kind of gaming with lots is loss familiar, and must be briefly considered. The lots used are two-faced, and their earliest purpose may have been for divination, before they canio to serve for sport. The sacred lots consultod in Confucian temples in China are here represented in Fig. 10; they are halves of a bambu root which are solemnly thrown down, both round sides up giving a negative, both flat sides an indifferent, and ono round and one flat side an affirmative answer of the oracle. By a larger number of lots gamesters obtain a greater variety of results, in a mode which may be best explained by setting down , according to the elementary rule of pro- bability, the frequency of the combinations of hoads and tails when n coins are tossed filfi — 1) tiifi l)(w 2) together (1, n, —~: — , ;r-^ , etc.). and thence the proportionate value of each combination. For example, let five coins be tossed, and let the value of the two best throws, five heads or tails, be taken as 25. Heads up . or Tails up. . Frequency . Value of "' When the calcuta^i; i values of the throws are compared with the values given to tliem in the various games to be presently described, it will be seen that the rules of scoring are in general inexact, f^or instance the game of pachisi, played by throwing five cowries, ought to conform in the scoring to the figures just given, but in fact it only shows an imperfect similarity. At the same time , the whole series of lot-games displays a consc'ousness of the infrequency of throws of all, or nearly all the faces one way, as com- pared with throws whore the faces are nearly equally divided. When these games were invented, the mathematical method of working out the combinations had not been reached, and apparently the only guide was experience, showing which throws were rarest and therefore ought to count most. Thus these games are of interest in the history of mathe- matics, as showing the early empirical stage of the doctrine of chances, which reached its logical development in the hands of Pascal and Fermat far on in the 17th century. As a means of gambling except in its simplest forms, the casting of two-faced lots is a clumsy process in comparison with the use of numbered dice, which tends to supersede it wherever both are known, so that it may be reasonably thought that the lot-games represent the original form , out of which the dice-games arose. 56 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 .5 1 10 10 1. 25 .5 2i •2k 5 25. 5 - As a flimple Old World type of lot-backgammon, the game called in colloriuial Arabic tab, and popular in Moslem countries, may be specified. The lots thrown are slips of split palm-branch about a span long, white on the insido, while the outside is left green (Fig. .'^), these sides being called white and black respectively. They are thrown against ,i wall or an upright stick, and the throw counts according to how many white sides come upfwrmnst, thus: Whites up Score . . 4 4+ 8 8 1 n- 0. • • • • \^ • • • • • • • • ' — I 1 c o o o o o •-■' (■-, o o J (Fig. 11. Dir>!""im for game of tab.) Those marked + give a new throw. Their values agree fairly well with the cal- culated odds, which are 6, H, 1, U, «. The game is played by moving pieces, usually bits of stone on one side and red brick on the other, on a diagram scratched on the ground, or with a more formal board and men. The /(<6-board (Fig. 11) is divided into four rows of an odd number of squares; each of the two players placing a number of his pieces or "dogs" in the i)uter r(iw on his own side. The lots are thrown l)y the players alternately till one player throws one white, which throw is called "tdh" and gives him the right to move one of his pieces from its original place; while there it is called a Nazareno, but when moved and able to go out to fight it becomes a Moslem. Throwing four whites or blacks, or one white, gives a new throw. Each player moves his right-hand man first, the course being from left to right in his own row, then right to left in the row in front, then from left to right again ; a piece moved into a place occupied by one of the adver- sary's pieces takes it ; if a player has two or more pieces on one s(iuare , they move toge- ther as one ; pieces which have reached the adversary's row are in safety. The lot-throwing part of the game may be played by itself, the throwers of 6 and 4 being called Sultan and Wezir, from whom the unfortunate thrower of 2 receives blows on the soles of his feet with the palmstick shown in the plate Fig. 4. >) There is a Chine.se variety of the game of four sticks, popular under the name of nyut in Korea, where Mr. Stewart Culin describes it.*) Four lots are used, made of bow-wood, plano-convex and with one black and one white side, somewhat like those in Figs. 6 «& 7 of the Plate. The scoring is Whites up 0. Score . . . i+ o. Four blacks give another throw. The calculated values would be 4 , 1 , ^ , 1 , 4. ') E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, vol. II, chap. IV. - Hyde, De Ludis Orientallbus, part II, p. 217. ») Culin , Korean Games (Philadelphia 1895). 57 - - Littlo sticks or other objects are usoil as inurkers or jjiecos, called lioises (md) of which each player has from one to four, which move and take along the spots of the diagram. Sanskrit literature furnishes early mentions of this family of games in India. Tiio gamo of aydnaiia, luck and unluck, has been discussed Ijy Prof. Alhuecht Wehkk"), and the mention of panchikd^ a gamo played with five cowries , may refer to pachi'si , with which we are specially concerned, and wliich will now bo briefly described. Fig. 5 njpresents tho^clotli embroidered with squares whicn com- monly serves as the board , often carried by zealous players rolled in their turbans. The pieces {/jot) are shown on the left, of four colours, a set of four of one colour being played by each of four players, or by two playing two sets each, as in Fig. 1. The five cowries thrown as lots score as follows: *%0 ^ ^ A ^ ^ ^ o ^ o o o o o o o o o o o o o o ^ o ^^ O o ^ Fig. 12. Diiigmm for game of nyitt. Mouths up . . T) Score .... 2-")+ 2 9 I 10+ 0. The calculated value has been already giver, 2?) 5, 2i, 25, 5, 25. The name of the game j^achisi (= 25) or dds pachisi {= 10 25) is taken from the two highest throws. The scoring with five cowries is from a good authority «) , but Dr. R .JENDRALai.A Mitra , who has been good enough to send me a careful account, takes six cowries as the usual num- bei-, which requires the addition of <>-up, counting 12 -4- , to the scoring with five cowries. In playing pachisi, the object of each of the four players is to move his pieces from the central space down the middle row of his own arm to its end , then along the outer lines of squares from left to right (against the sun) till having made the circuit of the whole board they come back, each reaching the end of its proper arm and returning home as it came, the winning player being he who gets his four pieces round first. The pieces move onward as many squares as the score of the throw , but a piece can only be started from the central space, or return there from the last square, by means of the starting 1 which is given to the thrower of dds (10) or pachisi (25) in addition to his proper score. The high throws 25+, 10+, H+, entitle the player to a new throw. A single piece on a square is taken by an enemy's piece moving on to that square, and has to go home and begin afresh. But two or more on one square hold it safely; also in the crossed squa'-ds or forts (chik) a single piece is in safety , and blocks the entrance of an enemy. It will have been noticed that the relation of pachisi to tab is close, piacfiisi being reduplica- ted to admit four players. A further change is to replace the cowries by dice ; those are of a peculiar long form with four faces, shown on the right of Fig. 5. Thus modified, pachisi passes into the game known as chupu7'.'^) ') A. Webee, Indische Studien, Vol. XIII, p. 471. '•') Qanoon-e-Islam , transl. by Herklots. London 1832, p. LII. ') See Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus II. p. 68. - Falkeneb, Ancient Games, London, 1892. p. 2or. Another variety is known as ashta-hashte. 58 - 7 - In this manner a simple lot-game like tab may have given rise to tht; dice-game ■vvhicii prevails with so great similarity across tho world, that ordinary European naninH inuy bo used for it almost indiflbruntly , smcIi as tables, trictac, back gammon. Its introduction may be assi;;ned to Western Asia, probably to Persia, where it was known at tho time of Aktaxkhxes, and tlonrislios still undor tho iiaino of nard It is noedlfss to discuss its later history here, but attei tion should bo drawn to a point which touches tho present emiuiry. Whilo the dice-game is conmion to tho Eastern and Western worlds, so that an Icelander could easily play backgammon with a Japanoso on an ancient Roman board, the iot-gamo which soems to have preceded it spread oast rather than west. At any rate, if any game liko Mb ov parltisi i)iayod vvlth two-faced lots over reached Western Europe, it is not commonly known, nor recorded in ordinary books on tho history of games. In now examining the American games, it will be seen that this bears forcibly, though not indeed cunclusivi'ly , on the question whether those correspond more closely with games belongring t(j Asiatics or to Europeans. As early as i^)l!), tho .Spanish invadeis on thoir way to the city of Mexico noticed clotiis workfHl in chessboard-pattern from which tiiey jutiged that the dice-boxes of clii uers were also in use in the country '). The only known Mexican game for which these cloths wore likely to have been intisnded was patolli. Of this game the description by Lopez de Oomara was written between 1540-50, as follows: Sometimes Montezuma looked on as they played at patoliztli, which much resembles tho game of tables, and which is played with beans marked like one-faced dice which they call patolli, which they shako between both hand^ and throw on a mat or on the ground wlu^ro there are certain linos like a mtu-ell-bo.\rd , on which they mark with stones the point that came up, by taking off or putting on a little stone'). Juan de Torquemaua partly follows this account but gives further details: "there was anothtu' game they call pntolll, which somewhat resembles the game of royal tables, and is played with beans having points made in them after the manner of one-faced dice, and they call it the game qX patolli because these dice are so called; they throw them with both hands on a thin mat which is called petate, with certain lines drawn on it in the form of a St. Andrew's cross and others across them, marking the point which fell upwards (as is done with dice) taking off or putting on stones of different colour, as in the game of tables^). BERNAumNo de Sakagun has other details to contribute, especially as to the marking of the beans. He mentions ') Petr. Martyh. De nuper repertis Insulis, BasileoB 1521 p. 38; Do Orbo novo, Compluti l&.SO, p. 86. "Lodicos uarias gossanipinas, cadido, nigro ut flavo coloribus intoxtas, duaa auio ot genimis ditus, tresq: alias pennis et gossampiiio intextas scacorum ludo; quod arguimmtuin est et scacoriun fritillos habere eos ill usu." "Noil est alionum a re, licet ludricum, quibus liidis utantur dicere: scacorum fritillos habere notum est, per scacos in lodicibus contextos." ■) Francesco Lopez de Gomara, Istoiia de las Indias, Saragossa 15(32, fol. 42. "Algunas vozes mirauia Mote(;gunia conio jugauan al Patoliztli, quo parece mucho al juego de las tablas. Y quo se juega con iiauas, frisoles laiados como dados do harinillas quo dizon Patolli. Los quales nienean entre anibas nianos. Y los eciian sobre una estera, o en el suelo, donde ay ciertas raias, como alquerqno, en que sofialan con piedras el punto que cayo arriba, quitando, o poniendo china." The harinillas or arenillas were dice used in Spain at tho game of rentilla, they had [)oints on only ono face, numbering one to six. ") Juan de Tokquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Seville 1615, book XIV, c. 12 "Aula otro juego quo Hainan Patolli, que en algo pai-ece al juego de las tablas reales, y juegase con liauas y frisoles, hechos puntos en ellos, a nianera de dados de arenillas, y dizenle juego Patolli, porque estos dados so llaman assi; echanlos con ambas manos sobre una ostora delgada que se llama petale, hech.os ciortas rayas a manera de aspa y atrauessando otras sefialando el punto que cayo hazia arriba (como se haze en los dados) quitando, o poniendo chinas de diferente color, como en el juego de las tablas." / 59 - s - patolli as a pastime of the lords, describing the lots as "four large beans, each having a hole", and again that "they made on the mat a painted cross full of squares . . . they took t' ree great beans with certain dots made in them, and let them fall on the painted cross. By the time of this writer the game , at wliich gold and jewels used to be staked , had been given up under suspicion of idolatry '). The already mentioned History of the Indies bearing the name of Diego Duran appears from the critical examination by Ramirez and Chavero to have been more or less an earlier composition written by a native Mexica.!, probably in his own language. The picture-writing accompanying it, though so late as to be much Europeanized , is an authentic document. The whole may be taken as a recoi'd from, or near, the first generation after the conquest in 1521. Chapter C. treats chiefly of patolli, at which and other games the Indians not only would gamble themselves into slavery, but even came to be legally put to death as human sacrifices. So covetous were these gamblers that they took as their particular gods the instruments of their game, if it was dice-playing they held the dice as a god and the lines and figures marked on the mat, as seen in the picture'), which gods they worshipped witli particular ceremonies not only at this game but at all their other games. They played the game of merells or draughts imitating the game of chess played by the Spaniards, taking one from the other the black and white stones or pieces. "There was another game, which was that they made on a plaster floor little hollows after the manner of a game-board, and one took ten stones and the other ten others, and the one placed his stones on the one edge and the other on the other on contrary sides, and taking some reeds split down the middle they th'-ew them on the ground so that they sprang up, and as many reeds as fell with the hollow side upward so many places he moved his stones forward, and thus one followed the other, and all such stoni's as he overtook, he took one after another till he left his adversary without any." There was also the game of the mat , which was the keenest they played , at whieh many could play jointly and in company, "the game they played on this mat they called patolly, which is the same word we now use for cards". On this mat they had painted a large St. Andrew's- cross filling the mat from corner to corner, within the hollow of which cross there were some transverse lines serving for squares, which cross and squares were marked and drawn with diluted olin (caoutchouc) for these squares there were twelve small stones, six red and six blue , which stones they divided between the players so many to each ; if two played as was usual, each took six, and although many might play, one always played for all, they following his play .... who had the best throws of the dice , which were some black beans, five or ten according as they wished to lose or gain, which had some little white holes in each bean by which were marked the number of squares which were gained on ') Bernardino dk Sahagun, Historia Universal tl- las Oosas de Nueva Espana, in Kinosborough , Antiquities of Mexico, vol. VII, booic VIII, u. 10, 17. "Tambien los Sefioros por su pasatienipo jugaban un .juego que se llama Patolli, que oa como el juego del castro 6 alquerque o casi, o conic ol juego de los dados, y son cuatro frisoles grandes que cada uno tiene un agujeio, y anojanles con la niano sobie un petate como quien Juega a los caraicoles donde estii lioclia una figura. A este juego solian jugar y ganarse cosas preciosas, como cuentiis de oro y piedras prociosas, turquesas muy finas. E.sto juego y el de la pelota hanlo dejado, por ser sospechosos de algunas supei'stitioncs idolatricas que en ellos hay." "El segunde pasatiempo quo tenian era un juego como dados; hacian en un potato una cruz pintada llena de cuadros semejantes al juego del alquerque 6 castro, y pueatos sobi'o el petate sontados toniaban tres frisoles grandes liechos ciertos puntos en ellos, y dejabanlos caer sobre la oruz pintada, y de alii tenian su juego." 2) Plate V. fig. 2. 60 ' 9 - \\ each hand , where five were marked they were ten , ard ten twenty , and if one , one , und if two, two, and if three, three, and if four, four, but marking five they were ten, and if ten , twenty , and thus these little white dots were the lots and counting of the lines which were gained, and for moving the stones from some squares to others," So many spectators and gamblers crowded round the mat, some to play and some to bet, that it was wonderful, and if the game was played on a sudden and there was no olin to make the lines of the gamingboard with on the mat, they used plants, as gourds or a herb called chichicpatly or bitter medicine, with the soot of pine-wood. The gamblers used to go about with the mat under their arms , and the dice tied in a cloth , and as in our day gamesters go with the cards in their breeches from one gaming-house to another, so these carried the dice and' stone pieces of the game in a little basket, doing reverence to them as gods, and talking to them as they played as to intelligent creatures, which as our author says, he does not wonder at, seeing how Christians of our nation who pride themselves on their delicate judgment will with hands crossed beg the cards for good points, and afterwards if they do not gain utter a thousand blasphemies against God and his saints, so these natives talked to the little beans and the mai with a thousand loving words and then would set the little basket in the place of adoration with the instruments of the game and the painted mat beside it and bring lire and throw incense into it, and doing their sacrifice in front with an offering of food , set to play with all the confidence in the world The name of the god of dice was Macuilxochitl , that is to say Five Roses i); him the gamblers invoked when they threw the beans from their hand, which was in the manner I shall state, that the beans which serve as dice are five in honour of that god who has the name of Five Roses, and to throw a main they carry them first a while turning them over between the hands, and in throwing them on the mat where is the figure of their gamin g-board and score, they called in a loud voice MacuilxochUl , and gave a great clap of the hands and turned to see the points they had got, and this MacnUxochitl was solely for this game of dice." There was another god who was for games in general, named Ometochtly or Two Rabbits, and whenever in this or other games they wished deuce to be thrown they invoked him. He was also the god of pulque and tavern- keepers, and Fray Diego winds up his account by saying that he remembered when the magistrates were putting down the games and apprehending and punishing the gamblers, tearing up the patolli-m-Ai& and burning the beans, in order at once to put an end to the superstitious practices and the harm and waste caused by gambling'). ') More correctly Five Plowevs. ■i) Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias. 2 vols & Atlas. Mexico, 1807-80. Vol. II. cap. C. Tlie somewhat abridged translation of this diffuse account may serve to interpret the author's meaning, but some of his statements are obscure. I have to acknowledge help kindly given by Don Fernando de Ahteaga, Lecturer in Spanish in the University of Oxford, in dealing with these difficult passages, bnt he thinks it impossible to make sense of some of them. Cap. C. "En todas las naciones hubo y hay juego y t.ihures que los inventasen y jugasen no solo para perder sus haciendas y dineros pero algunos pierden las vidas y lo que peer es que juntamente las almas (lo cual es mucho de doler) de los cuales juegos no carecio esta nacion mexicana pues teni'an juegos y maneras de perder sus haciendas y a si mismos despues tie perdidas se jugaban y se volvian esclavos perpetuus de los cuales ganaban y perdian juntamente las vidas pues era notorio quo vuelto esclavo venian a parar en ser sacriflcados a sus dieses. Habia en aquel tiempo tantos y tan codiciosos tahures y era tanta la codicia que habi'a entre ellos de ganar que los que eran dados a este vicio tenian por dies particular suyo a los instrumentos del juego cualquiera ((ue fuese por que si era de dados li osos dados tenian por dios y a las rayas y efle'os que en la estera estaban sefialadas (como en la muestra vimos) a quieii con particulares ofrendas y con particulares cei-emonias honraban y reverenciaban no solamente a 61 - 10 - I pass over descriptions of patolli by later writers'), who had no direct knowledge of este juego empero ii todoa los dernas de que usaban jugar con interes de perder 6 ganar los cualea juegos eran muchos y diversos con diferentes instrumentos y maneius. Jugaban el juego del alquerque 6 de las daiTias imitando el juego que nosotros jugamos del adjedrez prendl^ndose las chinas el uno al altro las cuales piedras Servian de piedras las unas blancas y las otras negras. Hab(a otro juego que era que haci'an encima de un encalado unos oyos pequefiitos a manera de fortuna y el uno tomaba diez piedras y el otro otras diez y el uno poni'a sus piedras por la una acera y el otro per la otra en contrarias partes e con unas canuelas hendidas por medio daban en el suelo y saltaban en alto y tantas cuantas cafiuelas cafan lo gueco hdcia arriba tantas casas adelantaba sus piedras y asi segui'an el uno al otro y todas cuantas chinas le alcanzaba se las iba quitando hasta dejalle sin ninguna y aconteci'a habelle quitado cinco y seis y con las cuatro que lo quedaban decide tambien las canueltfe que revolvi'a sobre el otro y ganalle el juego. Habia este juego de la estera que era el mas recio que se jugaba casi como entre nosotros la primera 6 las presas que son juegos para de presto como dicen a este juego podi'an jugar muchos juntos y de compafiia como querian y asi era el juego mas usado que habi'a del cual princi- palmento pienso tratar y declarallo pues muestro principal intento es en este capitulo tratar de 61 y del modo que de jugallo teni'an para lo cual es de saber (|ue al juego quo sobra esta estera jugaban llamaban patolhj que es el mesnio bocablo que agora llanianios naypes. Sobre esta estera tenian pintada una aspa grande de que tomal)a el petfite de osquina a esquina dentro del giieco de esta aspa habi'a atravesadas unas rayas que servi'au de casas la cual aspa y casas estaban seiialadas y rayadas con olin derretido .... para estas casas habia doce piedras pequeiias las seis coioradas y las seis azules las cuales piedrezuelas paitian entre los que jugaban a cada cual tantas: si jugaban dos que era lo ordinario tomaba las seis y el otro las otras seis y aunque jugasen muchos siempro jugaba uno por todos atendiendose a la suerte de aquel como entre los espauoles se juegan los alburos ateni^ndoso a la mejor suerte asi se atenian aea al que mojor moneaba los dados , los cuales eran unos frijolos negros ciniio 6 diez como querian perder 6 ganar los cuales tcni'an unos agugerillos blancos en cada fryol por donde pintaban el niimero de las ciisas que se aventajahan en cada mano donde se pintauan cinco eran diez y diez veinto y si uno uno y si dos dos y si tres tres y si cuatro cuatro pero pintando cinco eran diez y si diez veinte y asi aquellas pintillas blancas eran suertes y cuenta de las rayas que se ganaban y para mudar las piedras de unas casas en otras. Al cual juego cuanclo so jugaba acudian tantos miradores y taliures que estaban unos sobre otrcs sobre la estera unos para jugar otros para apostar que era cosa ostraiia. Cuando las rayas de esta estera (si el juego se inventaba de presto) no habia olin para hacellas habi'a particulares yerbas para hacer las rayas de aquella fortuna como eran liojas de calabaza 6 la mesma calabacilla pequefiita 6 una yerba quo ellos llaman chichicpatly que quiere decir la mediciua umaiga 6 con tigne de ocotl. en lo cual mezclaban supersticion por causa do que habia de ser con esta yerba y con esta y no con otra siempre teniendo obgeto a idolatria. Aiidaban los tahures do este juego siempre con la estera debajo del sobaco y con los dados atados a un pauito como algunos tahures de este tiempo que siempre andan apercibidos con los naypes en las ('alzas de tablage en tablage aquellos dados juntamonte con las piedrezuelas del juego traian en una basorita pequefia a los cuales hacian reverencia como a dieses fingiendo en ellos haber alguna virtud y asi les hablaban cuando jugaban como a cosa que tuviese algun sentido 6 inteli- gencia de lo que le pedian y no me espanta iii me maiavillo quo lus hablasen pues era gente de no tan agudo juicio como lo son los do iitra. nacion les hablasen y pidiesen les fuosen favorables y ayudasen en aquel juego pues hay cristianos de nuestra nacion que presumen de muy delicados juicios que puestas las manos piden al naype buen punto y buena suerte y si no le entr6 despues de haber adorado los naypes si asi so puede decir (con las manos puestas) decir mil blasfemias contra Dios y sus santos asi estos naturales hablaban ii los frijoli'tos y al potato y deci'au mil palabras de amor y mil requiebros y mil supeisticiones y despues de habelles hablado poniaii la petaquilla en el lugar de adoracion con los instru- mentos del juego y la estera pintada junto ii ella y traia lumbre y echaba en la lumbre incieuzo y ofreci'a su sacriflcio ante aquellos instrumentos ofreciendo comida delante de ellos. Acabada la ofrenda y ceremonias iban ii jugar con toda la conflanza del mundo .... El nombre del Dios de los dados era Maadlxochitl que quiere decir cinco rosas ii este invocaban los jugadores cuando arrojaban los frijoles de la mano lo cual era li la manera que dire que los frijolillos que sirven como de dados son cinco ii honra de aquel Dios que tieno nombre de cinco rosas y para echar la suerte triienlos primero un rate refregdn- dolos entre las manos y al lanzallos sobre la estera donde esta la flgura de la fortuna y cuenta suya que es ii la manera de dos bastes llamaban ii alta voz Maadlxochitl y daban una gran palmada y luego acadi'an il ver los puntos que le habi'an entrado y este Maadlxochitl era solamonte para este juego de los dados habia empero otro dios que era general para todos los juegos el cual es el que ves presente y tenia por nombre Ometochthj que quiere decir dos conejos y asi para el juego dicho como para los demas todas las vezes que querian que les entrase el dos hacfan la mesma invocaciou al soltar de las arenillas dando aquella palmada Ometochtly que quiere decir dos conejos. Tambien es necesario quo al vino que beben tuvieron estos por dios antiguamente y llamabanle Ometochtly y todos los taberneros y tiiberneras le celebraban sus ritos y ceremonias y ofrendas con toda la solemnidad y devocion posible . . . Acuerdome que antiguamente ^ndaban las justicias seglares si destruir estos juegos y a aprehender y castigar los jugadores poniendoles graves penas rompiendoles las esteras en que tentan pintadas aquellas fortunas la causa de aqueste rigor era por destruir las supersticiones y malas venturas etc. etc. ') Clavigero, Storia antica del Messico. Cesena 1780, Vol. II, p. 185. — Bbasseub de Boubeouhg, Histoire des Nations Civilisees du Mexique et de Am6rique Centrale, Paris 1858, Vol. Ill p. 671. 62 - 11 1 :i the game and in no way improve on the statements of the early chroniclers. The foi-e- going citations from these may have seemed to the reader of tedious length , yet there is hardly a sentence in them which is not evidence in the case. The accounts of the popularity of the game at the time of the conquest, the mention of its special god and the ceremonies of his worship, preclude the idea of the Europeans having brought it into the country with their own cards and dice which have long since superseded it. The descriptions given by the Spaniards indeed show that the game was new to them, for they noticed its resemblance to the game of tables and in a less degree to draught-games ; had they known anything nearer they would have said so. The only difficulty lies in the descriptions of the lots and the scoring , the very confusion of which seems to show that the Spaniards were not familiar with the device of lot-scoring, as a Hindu or Arab would be, or they would have expressly distinguished it from the use of numbered dice or tallies. Here, however, other evidence is available, in that some variety of the game, more or less simplified or broken-down, appears to have spread northward among the wilder Indian tribes, where it remained in vogue after its disappearance from among the Aztec nation. Father Joseph Ochs, a Jesuit missionary in this part from 1754 — 68, and who lived among the Tarahumara and Pima Indians , writes thus : "Instead of our cards they have slips of reed or wooden sticks a thumb wide and almost a span long, on which, as on a tally, different strokes are cut in and stained black. These they hold together tight in the hand, raise them as high as they can and let them fall on the ground. He who has the more strokes or pips for him wins the stakes. This game is as bad as the notorious hazard. They call it patole. As it is forbidden on pain of blows , they choose a place out in the woods , yet the noise of these bits of wood has discovered for me many sharpers hidden in the bush. To play the more safely they spread a cloak or carpet, so as not to be betrayed by the noise." *) Thus the Aztec name of patolli was still in use among a distant people of alien language to denote gambling with wooden lots. Another account , probably from an old authority , desc ribes a more complete form among the South Californian Indians. "Fifty small pieces of wood, placed upright in a row in the ground at distances of two inches apart, formed the score. The players were provided with a number of pieces of split reed, blackened on one side; these were thrown, points down, on the ground, and the thrower counted one for every face that remained white side up , if he gained eight he was entitled to another throw. If the pieces all fell with the blackened side up they counted also. Small pieces of wood placed against the upright pegs marked the game. They reckoned from opposite ends of the row , and if one of the players threw out so many as to make his score exactly meet that of his opponent, the former had to commence again"'). This description may be compared with the particulars noted by Mr. Robert Frazer or Philadelphia as to the Apache game of tze-tiehl or "stone and sticks", which account he kindly sent me with the diagram (Fig. 13) and a set of the lot-sticks (Plate V Fig. 6) on his return from a visit to the Apache country in 1884. the centre stone shown in the diagram and score thus: Convex up ... . 3 2 Score 10-1- 3 These lot-sticks are thrown against 6 ') MuBB, Nachrichten von veischiedenen Lftndern des Spanischen America, Halle 1809, part. I. ') Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, Vol I. p. 416. p. 266. 63 - 12 - f (y \ > & / Fig. 13. Diagram of Stones arranged for Apache Lot-tiame. According to calculation the numbers would be 10, 3j, 3^, 10. Three-up gives another throw. Fig. 13 shows the position of 40 small stones placed in quadrants round the centre, the two players moving their marking-sticks, which are the pieces w^i- ^<)0i5r^ in the game, in opposite directions, and the player whose stick ^' '% falls on his opponent's taking it up and sending it back, from ™ ^ which it is evident that the game is won by getting first round. If now this Apache game be compared with the Chinese-Korean game of mjut (Fig. 12) the resemblance will be seen to be so close that the Indians might conceivably have learnt it from the Chinese who for years past have swarmed in this part of America. But in one form or another the game prevails among the native tribes; thus the lot-sticks shown in Fig. 7 are those used by the Pueblo Indians of Arizona. It has been seen that the earlier accounts from the district date from times before the Chinese immigration. At this point the evidence comes in of the often described "game of the bowl" among the Indian tribes further north in the region of the great lakes. The Jesuit missionaries describe it among the Hurons so early as 1636, close on the first years of intercourse with the whites. Father le .Jeune describes this "jeu de plat" as played with six plumstones, white on one side and black on the other, in a dish which was struck hard against the ground so as to turn the stones over. He thought the game was simply to get the faces all black or all white, but perhaps he did not take the trouble to examine thoroughly anything so trivial as a savage sport. ') His account is implicitly contradicted on this point by Father Lafitau, who remarks that although the plumstones have only two sides , white and black , the Indians have a number of combinations rendering the game long and agreeable. This learned observant missionary-anthropologist noticed that the American game resembled one brought by the negros from Africa to the West India Islands. ') Fig. 8 represents the bowl and peach stones as used half a century ago in the festival games of the Iroquois described by L. H. Moegan. This diversion was believed to have come down from the beginning I'f the Iroquois League centuries ago, and the Indians hoped to continue its enjoyment in the happy regions of the future life. The tribes, represented by champion players, gambled ceremoniously in the public councilhouse , when the six peach- stones, shaped flattish and burnt black on one side, were shaken in the bowl, scoring thus: Blacks or whites up . . 6 Score 5-H 1+ 4 3 2 1 1+ 0. 54-. All throws counting gave also another throw. The calculated values being 5, g, J, 'f, I, fi, 5, it results that the scoring coriesponds to the nearest whole number, which is the only case of such accuracy I have met with and even suggests the possible interven- tion of some white schoolmaster. Also, the game was played with a bank, consisting ') Relations des Jesuites dans la Noiivelle France. Quebec reprint 1858, vol. I. (1636) p. 113. ') Lafitau, Moeiirs des Sauvages Ameriquains, Paris 1724, vol. II. p. 339. — Labat, Nouvellea Voyages aux Isles de rAmerique, vol. IV. p. 153; this game is described as played with four perforated cowries, throws of four-up four-down or two each way winning; an account rather founded on fact than correct. 64 - 13 - usually of 100 beans divided between the two sides, these beans being given and taken according to the throws, and the match being won by the side gaining all the other's beans. This arrangement, familiar to the white man, I have not met with any other mention of among the native American tribes. The Iroquois game of deer-buttons, whether played as a family sport or publicly, did not differ essentially. The eight lots, cut out of elk-horn with one side blackened, were thrown from the hands, and the throws taking a corresponding number of beans from the bank reckoned. Blacks or whites up . 8 7 5 Score 20+ 4-f- 24- 6 4 3 2 1 0. 2+ 4-4- 20+. The theoretical computation is 20, 2j, 5, v\, |, /, , y, 21, 20, which is wanting in the accuracy of the peachstone game '). The game of the bowl is not yet forgotten by the Indians, and Fig. 9 represents a dish and bone buttons with a white and a red side, which wei'e given me by a lady , familiar with Indian life , Miss Abby Algeh of Boston. The score is put down as Whites 5 up . . . 6 5 4 3 2 1 0. Score . 20 6 3 S 6 15. Schoolcraft has described among the Dakotas and Ojibwas more elaborate bowl- games, in which the lots have on them figures of tortoises, war-clubs etc., and his account has had much popularity through being worked by Longfellow into the poem of Hiawa- tha. These games, though founde'd on the native Indian games, are Europeanized hybrids of late times. *) Examination has now to be briefly made of the results of the preceding evidence. The existence in Mexico before the Spanish period of a game allied to tab and pachisi may be maintained as hardly open to question. How the Aztec players moved and captured the coloured pieces along the rows of places on the diagrams according to regulated chance, is known by positive description and even by an authentic picture. The manner of the deci- ding chances, though sometimes indistinct, is on the whole recognizable. The use of simple two-faced lots, which have lasted on till now among the wilder northern tribes, is un- mistakeable; the Aztec split reeds, and the beans with a hole on one side, can have been nothing else. The marking by several lines or dots may very well have been for the same purpose, but it is not impossible that it served for numbering the canes or beans so as to convert them into rudimentary dice somewhat such as the Spanish arenillas. If this were so, it would follow that the Aztecs knew how to play their game either with lots or dice, as the Hindus do at this day; we meet, however, with no trace of dice in early accounts of the Indian tribes to the north. The descriptions of the moves also agree with lots rather than dice. In Duban's first game we read that the number of canes fal- ') L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois. Rochester 1851, p. 302. ') ScHOOLCBAPT, Indian tribes of the United States. Part. II. p. 71. 66 - 14 - ling with the hollow side up determined the number of places to be moved, which easy method agrees with the play of the Southern Californians. In Duran's second game which was patolli proper, we meet with what seems a rule of probability, giving a much higher value to the extrenio throws than to the middle or average throws, which as usual show a tendency to follow the mere number of faces turned up, as in the previous more rudimentary game; the reader sufficiently interested in the problem will make the compa- rison for himself between Duran's numbers and the scoring lists here given. The idea that the similarity between the American and Asiatic games resulted from independent invention has seemed probable to more than one anthropologist. This sugges- tion raises the problem , as yet only imperfectly solved , of determining what kind and amount of similarity in the arts or customs or opinions of different districts may justify us in denying the possibility of their independent development and claiming them as results of transmission. Experience lias indeed led the educated world to judge positively on this question in extreme cases. If Englishmen landing on a remote island were accosted by natives in their own language, the notion that English had been developed here as well as in England would be treated as a jest. If the natives, were seen shooting with guns or playing chess, the suggestion of guns and chess having been twice invented even in appro- ximate forms would hardly fare better. Where, then, -s the limit of similarity which proves common derivation? Popular opinion is no doubt led by accumulated experience to consider that highly special or complex phenomena of thought and habit do not so readily recur as the obvious and simple, and probably this judgment is sound. The subject ought however to be brought to altogether more accurate definition. I have found it useful at any rate as a means of clearing ideas, to attempt a definite rule by analyzing such phenomena into constituent elements showing so little connexion with one another that they may be reasonably treated as independent. The more numerous are such elements, the more improbable the recurrence of their combination. In the case of a language recur- rence may be treated as impossible. If the invention of the gun be divided into the blow- tube, the use of metal, the explosive, the lock, the percussion etc., and classed as an inven- tion say of the 10th. order, and the invention of chess with its six kinds of pieces with different moves indicated as of perhaps the 6th. order, these figures would correspond to an immense improbability of recurrence. Such a game as pachisi, combining the invention of divining by lot, its application to the sportive wager, the combination of several lots with an appreciation of the law of chances , the transfer of the result to a counting-board , the rules of moving and taking, would place it in perhaps the 6th. order, the recurrence of which might be less than that of chess, but according to common experience still far outside any probability on which reasonable men could count. If this argument be admitted , the relation of the pachisi-patoUi groups of games in the Old and New World must be accounted for by intercourse before the Spanish conquest, other than that of the Northmen, which fails to answer the conditions. If communication across the Atlantic fails, the alternative is communication across the Pacific from Eastern Asia, where the sportive material required could readily be furnished. It is with no slight satisfaction that I take this occasion of contributing to a volume commemorative of Adolf Bastian. Trivial as a mere game may be in itself, its con- sideration involves problems coming within the wide range of interest of my honoured friend. I well remember how, soon after Der Mensch in der Geschichte was 66 Al - 15 - published in 1860, Professor Lazarus placed it in my hands as a book from which a student engaged on the quest of the principles of culture might profit much. Indeed this work did most to bring the laws of development of human thought withm the range of modern anthropology, by basing their study on the widest collection of facts, not distorted by premature generalization. The study of culture, in those days vaguer and more specu- lative than now, required a method which should cause fanciful theories to fall away simply by want of support, leaving the enquii-er to seek the elements of sounder generah- zation in the converging evidence from the most distant lands and ages. Anthropology owes not less to him for his work in the region of recorded facts than for what he has accomplished in foreign exploration or in the great Ethnological Museum of Berlin. »' ■ m A ^' »: "■ IW.lA >^' (tt 1 .■'I'-' A 'V ^ rrm''*' ■J* 3 ■ % a'i ^. i ! ^■''V r-. ^!^; ■^- '^iJ^ uuctdai- i'-. Kit. r« Sl'l'l'i../,r 11.1. IX. TM'. V. ATRofainscn PHot.etdel. KP>aar !it>.. rWMTvai. rnpi