Knucklebones
Knucklebones, also known as scatter jacks, snobs, astragaloi, tali, dibs, fivestones, jacks, jackstones, or jinks, among many other names, is a game of dexterity played with a number of small objects that are thrown up, caught, and manipulated in various manners. It is ancient in origin and is found in various cultures worldwide.
The name "knucklebones" is derived from the Ancient Greek version of the game, which uses the astragalus of a sheep. However, different variants of the game from various cultures use other objects, including stones and metal cubes.
The game was mentioned by Plato and Herodotus, the latter claiming although the game was famous in Athens it was not native to the city, ascribing Lydian origins to it, a story he recounts in his work The Histories.
Modern knucklebones consist of six points, or knobs, projecting from a common base and are usually made of metal or plastic. The winner is the first player to successfully complete a prescribed series of throws, which, though similar, differ widely in detail. The simplest throw consists in either tossing up one stone, the jack, or bouncing a ball and picking up one or more stones or knucklebones from the table while the ball is in the air. This continues until all five stones or knucklebones have been picked up. Another throw consists of tossing up first one stone, then two, then three, and so on and catching them on the back of the hand. Different throws have received distinctive names, such as "riding the elephant", "peas in the pod", "horses in the stable", and "frogs in the well".
History
Knucklebones is of ancient indeterminate origin and has probably been independently invented several times. It is found throughout various cultures worldwide.The talus bones of hooved animals are found in archaeological excavations related to the period starting from 5000 BCE much more frequently than other bones. Astragalus, being almost symmetric, has only four sides on which it may rest and is an early example of the game of chance. Knucklebones are believed to be an early precursor of dice. In contrast to dice, the astragalus is not entirely symmetric, with the broad side having a chance ~0.38 and the other side having a chance ~0.12. However, variations of the game can also be played with stones, seashells, or seeds.
The game was widely popular in ancient Greece and Rome, and was played by children and adults alike. It was also widely used for gambling and divination, with different faces of the bone assigned specific values.
Ancient Greek tradition and historiography ascribed the invention of knucklebones to various figures. Sophocles, in a written fragment of one of his works, ascribed the game to the mythical figure Palamedes, who supposedly taught it to his Greek countrymen during the Trojan War. According to a still more ancient tradition, Zeus, perceiving that Ganymede longed for his playmates upon Mount Ida, gave him Eros for a companion and golden jacks with which to play. On the other hand, both Herodotus and Plato ascribe a foreign origin to the game. Plato, in Phaedrus, names the Egyptian god Thoth as its inventor, while Herodotus relates that the Lydians, during a period of famine in the days of King Atys, originated this game and indeed almost all other games, with the exception of draughts. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to games similar in character to knucklebones.
By region
Central Asia
Knucklebones in Central Asian cultures use the astragalus of sheep or goat or the calcaneus of wolves. They are known as shagai among Mongolians; chükö among the Kyrgyz people; kajik among the Tuvan people; asyk among the Kazakh people; ashyk among Turkish people; bujulbozi among Tajik people; and gacuha among the Manchu people. They are used in games, fortune-telling, and as musical instruments. In Central Asian knucklebones, each side of the astragalus has a name and have value in divination as well as dice throwing. There are multiple kinds of games played with knucklebones, including catching thrown pieces on the back of the hand, flicking the pieces into each other on the ground like marbles, tossing another object and gathering pieces, and so on. It can be played with individual players or teams by both children and adults and are common entertainments in cultural festivals. The Mongolian shagai is inscribed in the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2014.Middle East
A variation, played by Israeli school-age children, is known as kugelach or chamesh avanim. Instead of jacks and a rubber ball, five small metal cubes are used. The game cube is tossed in the air rather than bounced.In Turkey and Iran, there is a similar game called "ye qol do qol".
East Asia
In China, the game is called 抓石子 zhuāshízi. It is played with around seven pebbles or cloth bags filled with sand or rice. The player arranges the pebbles evenly first. They throw one pebble into the air and quickly grab a pebble on the table before catching the falling pebble. If the player touches more than one pebble on the table, they forfeit their turn.In Korea it is called 공기, also jjagebatgi, salgu, or datjjakgeoli. It involves five or more small pebbles called 공깃돌. It has five levels escalating in difficulty and mechanics. The first four levels increases the number of pebbles collected per throw, while in the last level, the players catch the pebbles on the backs of their hand.
In Japan, the game is called お手玉 and originated from China during the Nara Period. It uses small bags of azuki beans called ojami. It is played in two ways: nagedama, which is similar to juggling; and yosedama, which is similar to modern knucklebones.
South Asia
In India, the game is called anju kal in Tamil and panchguti/pansguti in Bengali and Assamese. It is played with 5–7 stones. It is played between two or more players in turn. The game is played in 5 rounds. Generally for first 4 rounds four stones are thrown on the floor. First round is to pick up 4 stones one by one. Second round is to pick 2 stones at a time. Third round is to pick 3 stones together and then pick one. Fourth round is to pick all four in one go. Last round is to toss all the stones from palm and place it on the back of the palm and then catch all four by tossing to above.Austronesia
In the Philippines, there are two types of traditional children's games of throwing stones. The first is known as kuru, sintak, or balinsay, among other names. It is very similar to modern knucklebones but is indigenous in origin. Instead of a bouncing ball, it uses a larger stone called ina-ina that the player tosses up into the air and must catch before it hits the ground. During the throw, the player gathers smaller stones called anak. These vary in number but are usually eight to ten pieces. All of these actions are done only with the one hand. The game has multiple stages known by different names, each ranking up in difficulty and mechanics. The first stage picks up the smaller stones by ones, twos, threes, and so on. Other stages include kuhit-kuhit, agad-silid, hulog-bumbong, sibara, laglag-bunga, and lukob. For example, in kuhit-kuhit the player must touch a forefinger on the ground at each throw while also collecting the stones. The last stage of the game is known as pipi, where the losing player is flicked on the knuckles by the player. A variant of the game does not use an ina-ina stone, but players instead just throw the collected pebbles.File:Entada Phaseoloides.jpg|thumb|left|Entada phaseoloides seed used in traditional knucklebone games in Samoa and Fiji
The other game of throwing stones in the Philippines is known as siklot. It uses a large number of small stones, shells, or seeds which are tossed in the air and then caught on the back of the hand. The stones that remain on the hand are collected by the player and are known as biik or baboy. The player with the most biik plays the second stage first. The second stage involves the stones that fall on the ground. These are flicked into each other and collected if they hit each other. This is done until the player fails to hit a stone, then the next player does the same thing with the remaining stones, and so on.
In Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore, the game is called batu seremban, selambut, or serembat. Like the name implies, it only uses five pieces, usually stones, seeds, or small pyramidal bags of sand or rice. It also involves multiple levels of difficulty, varying in the number of stones collected and tossed. It does not have a specialized stone for throwing, though the one picked for throwing is also referred to as the "mother".
In Polynesia, the game is called by various names including kōruru, ruru, kai makamaka, ti kai and tutukai among the Māori; kimokimo among Hawaiians; timo or timo timo among Tahitians; lafo litupa among Samoans; and lavo among Fijians. It was very common among the natives of the Pacific Islands and were documented by early European explorers. It was played by people of all ages and traditionally includes a meaningless rhythmic chant sung by the players. Like in the Philippine version, the game uses only one hand for catching the thrown stones and has multiple stages ramping up in difficulty and mechanics. The names, mechanics, and number of stages varies depending on ethnic group.
Among the Māori, the game uses a marked throwing stone called hai, and around four to fifteen identical but unmarked rounded stones called kai mahi. Sets of these stones were created by hand and kept for the games. In Hawaii, each player has a throwing stone called aliʻi. The smaller stones were called pohaku. Among Samoans and Fijians, they used around fifty to one hundred flat circular seeds of Entada phaseoloides for the game.