Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/57

 CHAPTER II.

戲玩,

Under this heading will be found the recreations both of the old and the young. Games of chance have a great power over the Chinese mind, and the mania for gambling would seem almost as binding as the craving for opium, and its moral injury almost as certain.

A children's game of chess, called the pig's foot chess, chu t'i ch'a 猪蹏义 is played on a board like the following, which is something in shape like a pig's foot. The two rings indicate the two checkers.

Ox-horn chess, niu chüeh ch'i, 牛角棋, is played on a board somewhat after this shape. One person runs his checker up one side of the horn and the other up the other side. The motive is to avoid being cornered in the point of the horn.

A game of draughts, chang san ch'i 長三棋, played with six checkers on each side, has a board something like this.

Another game called slanting draughts, hsieh 斜 san ch'i is played with three checkers each on a board of this pattern.