Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/226

 There are three sorts of games which may be called banking games, in all of which one of the players or an impartial outsider acts as banker.

1° Meusréng ("twirling"). The banker places a coin on the board on its edge and twirls it. Before it ceases to revolve he puts a cocoanut shell over it. Each player puts his stake on one of two spaces marked on the ground, one of which is called putéh (white) or geudōng and the other itam (black) or patōng. Then the banker lifts the cocoanut-shell, and sweeps in the stakes of the losing parties while he doubles those of the winners.

2° Meuchéʾ. In this game the banker takes a handful from a heap of copper money, and counts it to see whether it consists of an odd or even number of coins. The players are divided into sides who stake against each other on the odd or even. The banker often sits opposite the rest and joins in the game as a player without an opponent, or else he takes no part in the game and takes a commission from the rest as recompense for his bankership.

3° Mupitéh. The banker (ureuëng mat pitéh) has in his control 120 pieces of money or fiches (from pitéh = pitis, Chinese coins) and takes a handful from this store. Meanwhile the players stake on the numbers one, two, three and four. The handful taken by the banker is now divided by four, and all win who have staked on the figure which corresponds with the remainder left over, 0 counting as 4. The banker pays the winners twice their stake and rakes in the stakes on the other three numbers as his own profit.