836 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



21. KwAT P'li.' "Bone tablets," dominoes. Canton, China. 



Set of thirty-two domino ])ieces of teak wood 2| inches by g inch by 

 f inch. Natural wood, with incised spots painted white and red. 



Chinese dominoes are marked in the same manner as the dice, from 

 which they are clearly derived. There are twenty-one distinct pieces, 

 representing the jjermutations of two dice. Eleven of these jiieces are 

 doubled, making a total of thirty-two in the set. Each piece received 

 a name, and in the popular game of Td fin l-an, or " Heavens and 

 Nines," the thirty-two pieces are divided into two suites or series, called 

 31an, "civil," and Mo, "military." 



The Man pieces are as follows : 



^, called fin, "Heaveu." 



■f, called ti, "Earth." 



I, called 2/aw, "Man." 



I, called wo, "Harmony." 



f, called nuii, "plum flower." 



f, called cheu7ig sam, "long threes." 



f, called 2>fl'n tang, "bench." 



f, called /it faw, "tiger's head." 



f, called hum/ fau shap, "red-head ten." 



f, called ho keuk ts'at, " long-leg seven." 



'i, called hrmg ch'ui Ink, "red-mallet six." 



Each of the above pieces is duplicated, the duplicates mating. 

 The Mo pieces : 



I and \, called cM tsiin, "supreme." 

 f and I, called tsctp kaii, " heterogeneous nines," 

 f and f, called tsdp pat, "heterogeneous eights." 

 I and ^2, called tsdp ts'at, "heterogeneous sevens." 

 -4 and I, called tsdj) 'ng, "heterogeneous fives." 



They mate as above. The two pieces called chi tsiin, or "supreme," 

 when x)aired rank as the highest of the Mo series, but when apart, as 

 the lowest. 



The game of Td fin Tcau is in manv respects the most interesting 

 Chinese domino game. It somewhat resembles the card games of 

 Europe, and is of considerable antiquity in China, existing, according 

 to Mr. Wilkinson,^ in 1120 A. D. 



The invention of the game of dominoes has been variously attributed 

 to the Jews, the Greeks, and the Chinese. It may be justly credited to 

 the latter people. No date can be assigned to its invention, and from 

 the cosmical associations of the pieces, and their use in divination, which 

 continues in China to the present day, it may be regarded as having 

 been originally used for that purpose. That dominoes originated in 

 dice is clearly apparent, the chief problem being the reason for the 

 duplication of the eleven pieces. With the knowledge derived from 

 the study of games in general, this may be assumed to have been done 



>Cat. No. 131397, U.S.N.M. Gift of Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer. Chinese Games 

 with Dice and Dominoes, fig. 18, Report U. S. Nat. Mus., 1893, p. 510. 

 2 Chinese Origin of Playing-Cards, American Anthropologist, January, 1895. 



