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* SKALD. 209 SKATING. eal imagery, roughly shaped out of obscure tra- dition, to which Scandinavian poets were prone. The great, if not the only aim of the Skaldic poets was to celebrate the deeds of living war- riors or of their ancestors. For this reason princes attached skalds to their courts, and com- peted with each other, by magnificent presents, for the possession of the most skillful minstrels. See Icelandic Litebatube. SKAT. A game of cards, the most intricate and perhaps the most scientific of them all. Its origin was in Germany, and dates from about the beginning of the nineteenth century. The derivation of the name is obscure. Thirty-two cards are used, but, unlike whist cards, they are not double-ended. Not only the face cards, but the spot cards as well, usually show fully executed figures. Tliree or four per- sons take part in the game, although but three are active players, one. the player, playing against the other two. Each player holds ten cards, two being laid aside in the 'skat.' The use of these two cards determines the two differ- ent st3'les of playing. With the skat, it is a simple game, or it may be Tourne (an order to turn up one of the cards in the skat), the suit of which becomes trumps. Or it may be without ' the skat, in which latter case the varieties of the game are designated as Solo. Nulla, and Grando. The four suits of the cards are: Eich- tln (acorn), the equivalent of clubs; Griin (green), the equivalent of spades; Roth (red), the equivalent of hearts; Schellen (the bells), the equivalent of diamonds in other cards. The four suits have a graded value, clubs counting the best, spades second, hearts third, and diamonds lowest. The trumping value of the jacks, which constitute the best trumps, fol- lows the same order ; after which come the ace. ten, king, queen, etc., of the trumps turned. The nine, eight, and seven have no value of their own before the players bid for the privi- lege of playing the game, the one offering to play in the highest suit securing the privilege. This same player, however, is under the neces- sity of scoring at least sixty-one points. With sixty, he loses : with thirty points he is cut (Schneider) ; with no count at all he is black (Schwarz). Points are as follows: aces, 11; tens, 10: kings, 4 : queens, 3 ; jacks, 2. After the jacks, the ace is next in value, followed by the ten, king, queen, nine, eight, and seven. The four jacks only are trumps in Grando, while in Nullo there are no trumps at all. Each player must follow suit; but where that is not possible, a trump or any other card may be played. The dealer is determined by dealing one card to each player, until a jack is turned up, the player receiving it dealing the first round. The player to the right of the dealer 'cuts,' after which the cards are dealt to the left, five cards to each of the three active hands (the dealer, should there be four players, remaining inactive, then two cards in the skat, and another five cards to each player. Calling or biddinri is according to the following rule: The second hand begins the bid- ding by offering a game to the first hand ; or, if the second hand elects, the third hand makes the offer, and if he passes, the first hand has the play. Where two equally high games are bid. the first hand has preference to the others, and the second to the third. Xo player may play a game of less value than his declared intention. SKATE (from Icel. skata, skate; perhaps from Lat. srjiiulus, sqnutina, sort of sliark, angel-fish). The name of certain species of rays (q.v.). The commonest as well as the smallest species along the east coast of the United States is the tobacco- box {liaju crinacea) ; the largest is the barn- door skate (Raja Iwvis), four feet long. The big skate of California is the largest of the American skates, reaching a length of six feet, and its egg-case is nearly a foot long. The tlesh, though coarse, is eaten, especially by Europeans. See Plate of Rays and Skates. SKATING (from skate, from Dutch schaats, ODutcli, schaetse, high-heeled shoe). One of the primitive methods of man's ])rogression over the ice when it is free from snow. The earliest form of skate was a shin or rib bone of some animal, tied to the skater's foot. Skates of bone are in the Guildliall collection in London and in other museums. The wooden skate shod with iron appeared in the fourteenth century. With the development of a metal foot piece bearing a cutting edge the art of progressing without the aid of the stick was acquired, the blade being set within a base of wood, which was strapped to the foot. Holland is still the paradise of skaters, and skating there, aside from its prac- tical uses, is a national sport. Other notable skating countries of Europe are Russia, Norway, and Germany. Skating is very popular in Great Britain, and some famous skaters have been pi'oduced. especially from the Fens, on the ea.st- ern coast of England. The United States and Canada, with their long, cold winters, have pro- duced many fast skaters who vie with the best of those abroad. Few outdoor sports in these countries attract so many devotees from the mass of the people. On the Hudson River have been made some of the fastest skating records, although Minnesota and the Middle West gen- erally now rank with it. Montreal is the centre of Canadian skating. In 1884 a national ama- teur association was formed, with W. B. Curtis as president, and this has held successful cham- pionships ever since. Afterwards Eastern and Western sectional championships were instituted, and in 1899 the distances w.pre measured accord- ing to the meter system, in accordance with the custom abroad. Foreign skaters in the United States have, as a rule, had to take second rank to the Americans. The development of the skate used in the United States embraces three distinct periods. The old-fashioned skate had a straight, thick blade, sometimes with a double edge (gutter), affixed to a piece of wood, the skate being bound on bj' straps. Then came the club-skate, an im provement in that it was entirely of metal and could be instantly clamped to the foot. The blades were of a 'rocker' shape from end to end, which allowed fancy skating, but which re- duced the speed in straightaway skating. Fi- nally the 'Hudson River' or 'Donoghue' skate was introduced, which at once found favor in the West especially. This "was pr.actically a return to the old-fashioned form, the skate being straight-bladed and having a wooden top, with straps. The blade is long, projecting behind and before the foot, and very narrow, and the 'club' or foot-piece, when properly made of apple-wood.