Seven cowries are placed in each hole, and the first player invariably wins. La'b rosëya is a variety of the first game and is played only by children. They calculate the hole in which the last piece will fall, and the result depends largely upon this calculation. The players, instead of first taking from the hole on their right, may select any hole on their side of the board as a starting place. In this game it is customary in Syria to put seven pieces in each hole. Success in it depends largely upon the skill of the players. La'b hakimi, the "Rational game," or La'b akila, the "Intelligent game," is so called in contrast to the proceeding. No skill is necessary or of any avail in this game, the result being a mathematical certainty, according to the manner in which the pieces were distributed in the beginning. When the board is cleared, each player counts the number he has above his opponent as his gains. If the head is empty, the player takes from the next nearest hole in his row. The second player takes from the hole opposite and distributes his pieces around A, B, C. In that case he takes the two or four pieces with those in the hole opposite, and if one or more of the holes that follow contains two or four without the intervention of a hole with any other number, he takes their contents with those opposite. Until one of two things happen - his last piece drops into an empty hole, when he stops and his opponent plays, or it drops into a hole containing one or three pieces, completing two or four. When he has dropped his last piece he takes all the pieces in that hole and continues dropping them around as before. If any remaining after he has put one in each of the holes on the opposite side, he continues around on his own row A, B, C. This player then takes all the pieces from the hole at the right of his row, figure 1, G, called el ras, "the head", and drops them one at a time into the holes on the opposite side, commencing with a, b, c, and so on. Figure 1 - MANCALA - from a figure by Lane One distributes the pieces in the fourteen holes, called bute, "houses," not less than two being placed in one hole. One game is called La'b madjnuni, or the "Crazy game." The players seat themselves with the board placed lengthwise between them. Two persons always engage, and ninety-eight cowrie shells ( wada) or pebbles ( hajdar) are used. There are two principal ways, which depend upon the manner in which the pieces are distributed at the commencement of the game. A lad from Damascus described to me the methods of play. The implements are a board with two rows of cup-shaped depressions and a handful or so of pebbles or shells, which they transfer from one hole to another with much rapidity. The visitor to the little Syrian colony in Washington street in New York City will often find two men intent upon this game. Mancala is a game that is remarkable for its peculiar distribution, which seems to mark the limits of Arab culture, and which has just penetrated our own continent after having served for ages to divert the inhabitants of nearly half the inhabited area of the globe. Their origins are lost in the unwritten history of the childhood of man. The questions involved in their diffusion over the earth are among the vital ones that confound the ethnologist. The comparative study of games is one that promises an important contribution to the history of culture. The graphics are slightly edited copies from sketches and photographs accompanying the original text. Word processor, then created as a Webpage. The paper was scanned from a photocopy of the printed text, edited in a Words in Syrian orĪfrican languages with diacritical marks are transcribed from his text, and are presented within the limitations imposed by HTML. His spelling and sentence structure have been maintained, but some punctuation has been altered.
Note: For the most part, this is a direct transcription of the paper by Culin. Published in the Report of the National Museum, 1894, Pages 597-611. Read before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, May 20, 1894. Mancala, The National Game of Africa By Stewart Culin Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Paleontology,
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