834 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



The antiquity of dice in China is not known. They appear to have ' 

 been introduced into that country from India. It will be observed that 

 a cosmical significance is attached to the dice throws, the "six"' being 

 called '"Heaven," and its opposite, "one," "Earth." The "four" 

 between is designated as "Man." ^ 



Korean dice, called tjyou-sd-a, differ from those of China in having 



the 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and G opposite. A set in the University 



Museum, collected by Dr. E. B. Landis, are marked with plain black 



dots, arranged like the Hindu Mbatain, to form a pair. A single 



Korean die (fig. 152), in the same museum, is a rectangular prism, liat 



instead of square. The arrangement of the dots is the same, but the 



" one " and the " four " is in red, as well as the two middle spots of the 



"six" and the middle spot of the " five" and of the " three." 



It is interesting to note that the arrangement of the dots on the 



Korean dice is the same as that on some of 



the Etruscan dice.^ A peculiar importance 



is attached to the latter, from the fact that 



it is believed by Etruscologists that the first 



six numerals of the Etruscan language have 



been recovered from a pair of dice exhumed 



KOREAN DIE. Ill 1848 ucar Toscanella.^ These dice, now in 



Cat. No. 17606, Museum of Archaeology, ^j^g Cabiuct of Mcdals aud Autioues in the 



University of Pennsylvania. ■*- 



National Library, Paris, bear, instead of the 

 usual pips or dots, the following words in Etruscan letters: Mach, 

 Thu, Huth, Ki, Zal, Sa. These words have been variously interpreted 

 by scholars upon the assumption that they are numerals, and also that 

 the pips which they are supposed to replace were uniformly arranged 

 1 + 3, 2 + 4, 5 + 6 (Campanari's law). Comparison of the Etruscan 

 dice words with the numerals used in the Korean game of Nyout, a 

 comparison suggested by the fact of the agreement of the Korean and 

 Etruscan dice in their dissimilarity from other dice, shows a curious 

 corresi)ondence. 



1 Chinese Games with Dice and Dominoes, Report U. S. Nat. Mus., 1893, p. 494. 



2 Among the dice in the British Museum regarded as Etruscan, which vary in their 

 pips from the regular arrangement (that is, 1 + 6, 2 + 5, 3 + 4), three have 1+2, 

 3 + 4, 5 + 6, and three 1 + 3, 2 + 4, 5 + 6. What appears to be a set of three dice, 

 made of amber, have one marked 1 + 2, 3 + 4, 5 + 6; one 1 + 3, 2 + 4, 5 + 6, and 

 one regular, 1 + 6, 2 + 5, 3 + 4. Two iron dice (Cat. No. 15786) in the Univei-sity 

 Museum, purchased at Perugia, have their dots arranged 1 + 3, 2 + 4, 5 + 6. 



^Daniel G. Brinton, The Ethnologic Affinities of the Ancient Etruscans, Proc. 

 Amer Philos. Soc, Philadelphia, XXVI, 1887, p. 522. 



