518 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



combinations as possible, formed by adjacent pieces, according to the 

 diagrams, and adds together the numbers corresponding with them. 

 This sum is referred to the following table and result noted: 



1 to 4 is to be esteemed hd hd, " lowest." 

 5 to 7 is to be esteemed chung hd, "below the middle." 

 8 to 9 is to be esteemed chum/ p'ing, " even middle." 

 10 to 11 is to be esteemed sheung sheting, " highest." 



The dominoes are then reversed again and mixed, and the preceding 

 operations twice repeated, and 3 sets of terms from the above series 

 obtained. Reference is then made to the text of the book. This con- 

 sists of 125 pages, arranged in order under all the different combina- 

 tions that may be formed with the 5 i>airs of terms given above, taken 

 3 pairs at a time, commencing with sheung sheung, shewing sheung, sheung 

 sheung. An oracular verse, apparently of original composition, is found 

 on each page, referring to some well-known personage or incident, with a 

 short text to aid the diviner in applying the prognostication to the various 

 affairs of life. 



DOMINOES FROM FUHCHAU. 



Before proceeding to discuss the origin and antiquity of the Chinese 

 game, an account will be given of dominoes used in other parts of China, 

 and among the people of the adjacent countries. 



A set of dominoes from Fuhchau* in the Oriental Section of the 

 Museum of Archieology and Palaeontology of the University of Pennsyl 

 vauia is made of bamboo and numbers 32 pieces. They measure f ^ 

 by fl by -^| inch, and have slightly curved faces that follow the natural 

 curve of the reed. The concave faces are marked with incised spots 

 that are painted red and green, and are arranged in the Chinese series 

 (iig. 17), green taking the place of black spots. These dominoes are 

 accompanied with 16 wooden disks resembling draughtsmen, an inch 

 in diameter, the faces of which are reproduced in plate 8. They 

 each bear a Chinese character referring to one of the 16 pairs formed 

 with the 32 dominoes.t Four of these, fm, ti, yan, and wo, are the same 



* Received through the courtesy of J. P. Cowles, esq., U. S. vice-consul, Fuhchau. 



tProf. Rudolfo Lauciani, iu the Atheuieum, January 7, 1888, gave an account of 

 the discovery of a tomb iu Perugia twenty-one centuries old, in which an inveterate 

 gamlder had been buried together with his gambling apparatus. Aniong other 

 remarkable sets were "16 tesserw, or labels, cut in bone, 4 inches long, with a word 

 engraved on one side and a numlter on the other." The imi^ortanceof the discovery 

 is concentrated on the words and numbers engraved on the bone labels. The ancients 

 used to give a special name to a certain number, or addition of numbers, which they 

 obtained by throwing the dice. * * * As regards the newly discovered labels, it 

 appears that any number from 1 to 12 was considered a very bad throw, and conse- 

 quently the corresponding words or names were very objectionable indeed {Moechus 

 Vappa, ect.). The "13" is neither good nor bad; hence its name, vix rides, "you 

 hardly smile." The names corresponding to higher numbers are all of good omen, 

 such as benignua (25), amator (30), and/e/ix (60), wliich seems to be the maximum of 

 the game discovered at Perugia." While the agreement of number of tablets in this 

 Etruscan series with those in the Chinese is probably a mere coincidence, it is curious to 

 note the occurrence of such similar usages in ages and countries so widely separated. 



