CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 



849 



34. TlwuLAH. Backgammon. Damascus, Syria. 



Foldiiij;' board inlaid with niotber-of-pearl and silver wire, dice, and 

 men.' The game is played in the same manner as tlie common English 

 game. The game of backgammon belongs to what I have designated, 

 for convenience, as the Xyout series. Dr. Hyde has remarked that the 

 six points upon each quarter of the backgammon board were devised 

 to correspond with the six points of the cubical die. 



35. Tabal. liackgammon, Johore, Malay Peninsula. Board.^ 



The name of this game, tabalj is doubtless from the Portugese tabola 

 or Spanish tahla. 



Fig. 156. 

 MEN F^OR KOREAN BACKGAMMON GAME. 



Height, 5g inches. 



Cat. No. nfiOI, Museum of AichaH)ln(;y, University of Pennsylvania. 



The game of Backgammon, played upon a board of twenty-four sta- 

 tions similar to the boards in common use in Spain at the present day, 

 exists along the entire eastern coast of Asia, from Korea to the Malay 

 Peninsula. 

 36. Ssang-Ryouk. Backgammon. Korea. 



Reproduction of native picture of ])layers engaged at the game.^ 

 This game is described at length in Chinese (lames with Dice and 

 Dominoes. It is played with fifteen men, according to the throws with 

 two dice, in the same manner as the English game of backgammon. 

 Tlie board consists of an unpainted box, 11 by 23.J inches, with inclos- 

 ing sides 3| inches high. The men — called mal^ "horses," as in the 

 Nyout game — are delicate wooden pins 2f inches high, with a hemi- 

 spherical base (fig. 156). Those on one side are painted green, with red 



' Cat. No. 7710, Mus. Arcli., Univ. Penn. 



^Ciit. No. 1G586, Mus. Arch., Univ. Penn. Chinese Games with Dice, tig. 10, 

 Eepoit U. S. Nat. Mas., 1893, p. 502. 

 3 From Korean Games. 



NAT MUS 90 54 



