Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/75

66 One never passes a group of boys at play without witnessing some of the most dexterous performances of tumbling, wrestling and other exercises tending to the development of the muscular powers of the system. In their dances too they exhibit evolutions, throwing at once every muscle into action, which, would almost be regarded as impossible except witnessed.

In the towns further interior than Abbeokuta, in which the use of fire-arms has not yet become general, one frequently sees groups of boys contesting in feats of archery, with great skill. In Oyo bets are only permitted in these exercises. There are several fine games of skill practised by the Akus. A favorite one is the "wari." The apparatus consists of twelve cups arranged in two rows, hewn out of a single block of wood. Four bean-like seeds are placed in each cup, and the game is begun by each party alternately taking the contents of one cup of the row next himself and distributing them, one by one, beginning at the cup next to that from which he took them. When one party can throw the last three or four of his beans into the cups of his antagonist, containing not more than one or two beans each, he seizes the contents as his prize, and thus they continue until the beans are all taken, when each counts what he possesses, the