Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/213

 the game called meugatòʾ or mupanta, mention of which is to be found in many hikayats. The number of players is not limited, but it can if necessary be played by two. Each player has a bòh gatòʾ or bòh panta, i. e. a betel-nut or a small hemisphere of horn or ivory. Some small holes are made in the ground in a straight line at intervals of from 7 to 9 feet. The players begin by each jerking his bòh panta from the first hole into the third. They shoot the missile by squeezing it hard between the fore finger of the right hand and the middle finger of the left, the elastic pressure of the fingers causing it to spring forward. Whoever succeeds in getting his bòh panta into or nearest of all to the third hole, gets a shot at the others to send them further away from that hole, and so on. The object of the game is to get the bòh panta into all the holes in the row a fixed number of times in the following order; 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 etc. At each shot the player endeavours either to attain the hole next in the sequence, or to knock away his opponent's bòh further from it.

Doing the latter has the double advantage of driving the adversary further from his goal, and of giving the player another shot at the hole, which is much easier than the first as he is now closer up to it.

The first who has got into all the holes in the row the required number of times is called the raja, but those who come after him are also esteemed winners. The last is the only loser and has to stand at the first hole and hold out his ankle (gatòʾ) as a target for the winners (theun gatòʾ). Each of them gets a shot at it from the third hole, not only with his own bòh but also those of all his fellow-players. The luckless member not infrequently becomes quite swollen in consequence of this operation, and it is in any case painful.

The "hopping-game" (hop-scotch; Ach. meuʾingkhé or meungkhé) is played in a good many different ways as regards details; we give here a single example.

A figure is first marked out like that represented on the next page on a small scale. The lines enclosing it are called euë (boundary of land). The four lines drawn from the extremities of the boundary at top and bottom