826 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



1 regard these long dice as the 7uore or less direct outcome of the 

 diviuiug staves, 



14. Astragali (Tali). Knuckle boues.' Natural bones from the 

 aukle of a sheep. 



Used as dice by the Greeks and Komaus, and in common use at the 

 present day for the same purpose in the Mohammedan East and in 

 Southern Europe and Spanish America. 



Knuckle bones have been used as implements in games from remote 

 antiquity. There are several distinct ways in which they are thus 

 employed. One was as jackstones, described by classical authors as 



Fig. 146. 



BRASS FLACQUE ACCOMPANYING DICE FOR FORTDNE-TELLING. 



Diameter, 3J inches. 

 Per.sia. 



Cat. No. 278, Museum of Archseology, University of Pennsylvania. Sommerville 

 collection. 



played principally by women and children with five bones, the same 

 number employed iu modern times.'^ Among the Syrians at the i)resent 

 day they are used by children in games resembling marbles, being 

 knocked from a ring drawn on the ground with others, which are some- 

 times weighted with lead.^ A favorite and almost universal use of 

 knuckle bones in games was as dice in games of chance. Among the 



a negative answer, except from the museum at Biel (Canton Berne), in whicb are 

 part of the materials of La Tene. This pile dwelling has furnished two stick-dice 

 that entirely correspond with those from Hradischt. 



1 Cat. No. 1.52.546, U.S.N.M. Gift of Stewart Cnlin. 



2 Used at the present day by French children under the name of osseUU. 



3 Stewart Cnlin, Syrian games with Knuckle-bones, Pro. Num. and Ant. 8oc. of 

 Phila.. 1890-91, p. 123. 



