THE HISTORY OF GAMES. 225 



this means alone can he learn enough of the subject to be of value 

 to him ; by this means alone can he get the peculiar training which 

 leads to that kind of mind known as the " scientific mind " a some- 

 thing which is tangible and attainable, and which should be a charac- 

 terizing feature of every medical man. 



THE HISTORY OF GAMES. 



By EDWAKD B. TYLOR, F. E. S. 



BEFORE examining some groups of the higher orders of games, 

 with the view of tracing their course in the world, it will be well 

 to test by a few examples the principles on which we may reason as 

 to their origin and migrations. An intelligent traveler among the 

 Calmucks, noticing that they play a kind of chess resembling ours, 

 would not for a moment entertain the idea of such an invention hav- 

 ing been made more than once, but would feel satisfied that we and 

 they and all chess-players must have had the game from one original 

 source. In this example lies the gist of the ethnological argument 

 from artificial games, that, when any such appears in two districts, it 

 must have traveled from one to the other, or to both from a common 

 center. Of course this argument does not apply to all games. Some 

 are so simple and natural that, for all we can tell, they may often 

 have sprung up of themselves, such as tossing a ball or wrestling ; 

 while children everywhere imitate in play the serious work of grown- 

 up life, from spearing an enemy down to molding an earthen pot. 

 The distinctly artificial sports we are concerned with here are marked 

 by some peculiar trick or combination not so likely to have been hit 

 upon twice. Not only complex games like chess and tennis, but even 

 many childish sports, seem well-defined formations, of which the 

 spread may be traced on the map much as the botanist traces his 

 plants from their geographical centers. It may give us confidence in 

 this way of looking at the subject if we put the opposite view to the 

 test of history and geography to see where it fails. Travelers, ob- 

 serving the likeness of children's games in Europe and Asia, have 

 sometimes explained it on this wise : that, the human mind being alike 

 everywhere, the same games are naturally found in different lands, 

 children taking to hockey, tops, stilts, kites, and so on, each at its 

 proper season. But, if so, why is it that in outlying barbarous coun- 

 tries one hardly finds a game without finding also that there is a civ- 

 ivilized nation within reach from whom it may have been learned ? 

 And, what is more, how is it that European children knew nothing 

 till a few centuries ago of some of their now most popular sports ? 

 For instance, they had no battledoor and shuttlecock and never flew 

 vol. xv. 15 



