Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/364

 other's thumbs, and each man tries to bend the arm of the other over backward until it touches the table. This is a genuine and severe test of strength, as anyone will discover by trying it.

Hide-and-seek and blind-man's-buff are common, and little girls go about with wooden or rag dolls strapped to their backs like true babies. Jack-stones, fox-and-geese, cat's cradle and other juvenile games are also played.

As for sedentary games, the chief places are occupied by chess and padok. In a very general way their chess resembles ours, but the board is somewhat different, and the rules are so changed that knowledge of one method does not help in playing the other. The game of padok is far more difficult than either Korean or European chess. It consists in enclosing spaces on a wide go-bang board with white and black discs. The foresight and the mathematical ability required to play this game successfully are astonishing. It is a Chinese invention, and surely does credit to its inventor. Poe says that the game of draughts requires a higher quality of mind than chess, but padok, while requiring the same kind of skill as draughts, is probably ten times as difficult.

For gambling purposes Koreans use dominoes and " cards," the latter being made of stiff oiled paper half an inch wide and eight inches long. Coolies on the street corners, waiting for a job, while away the time playing a game that is a cross between backgammon and fox-and-geese, scratching the necessary lines on the hard earth in lieu of a " board." If you see half a dozen heads together, you will know that a game is in progress, and that the stakes are high, perhaps even five cents. As each man throws the dice, he gives his thigh a resounding slap. This is supposed to bring luck, just as we have seen people in more enlightened lands murmur fond entreaties into the dice-box before throwing.

These are, of course, not all the games Koreans play, but they are the commonest and most distinctive.