Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/58

 Another game, something like draughts, is called wei lao ho shang 圍老和尚. The board is of this pattern.

The idea is to avoid being driven back into the horn.

The most famous game of this class is wei ch'i 圍棋, played with 360 counters.

Common games of chance are pitch and toss, pan ma ch'iao mei 扮麻雀妹, in which the Chinese and Manchu characters on a cash are the 'heads and tails'; to play cards, ta p'ai 打牌, which are of paper, ivory or wood; to play dominoes, ta ku 骨 p'ai, a very old game in China; to throw dice, chih shai-tzŭ 擲骰子, using either 3 or 5 dice; to raffle, yao pao 搖寶, by means of dice; the wheel of fortune, chuan't'ang ping 轉糖餅, where sweets are won or stakes lost according as the wheel stops; guessing fingers (morra), hua ch'üan; and many others.

Scholars have a game of the "missing word" in a line of poetry, shih pao 詩寶. There is a game with cards each bearing the name of a province; the idea is to make poetry by arranging these characters: thus, 同福寧東江, 宣薊昌, 南河林廣浙, 臺貴陝雲章.

There are many games with cash, such as throwing cash at a coin either placed on the ground or fallen there in the rebound from a wall at which it has been cast, pan ch'ien 拌錢 and chuang 撞 ch'ien.

Or the cash is aimed at a small hole in the ground, tiu wo 丟窩, or it is thrown at the central one of some 16 bean-curd moulds, tiu tou-fu hsiang 丟豆腐箱.

A hollow in the ground is lined with brass cash, and players throw walnuts, winning each cash they hit, ta hê t'ao 打核桃.

A piece of sugar-cane is balanced on a knife. The knife is removed and a cut made at the falling cane. The person gets as much as he cuts off, if he splits it down the middle he gets the whole.

The Chinese have the well-known amusement of blindfolding one eye, then walking up to a sugarcane stuck in the ground and trying to drop a ring on to it. The winner gets the cane. This is called kua kan chê 掛甘蔗.