532 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



(1127-1163) pattern packs were issued by imperial edict. They are now known 

 throughout the euijjire as ku p'ai, 'bone pai;' but it does not follow that this class 

 of games, 2)o-sai, ko-wu, and the rest originated in the reigu Hsiiau-ho." 



As tbe foregoinji- shows that the liistorical evidence is iucouchisive 

 as to the actual iiiveutiou of dominoes, and as the Chinese accounts of 

 the invention of other games are not particularly trustworthy, and 

 especially as the history of all games seems to be one of gradual evo- 

 lution, rather than direct invention, the following pages are devoted 



Fig. 24. 

 PASE (DICE). SET OF THREE FOR CHAUSAU, MCKNOW, INDIA. 



( Fnim specimens in Museum ol' University (.1 reniisylvania. ) 



to an examination into the origin of the game from internal evidences 

 rather than an historical point of view. 



DOMINOES A FOE3I OF DICE. 



It is readily apparent that the 21 individual domino pieces represent 

 the possible throws with 2 dice, and that the domino pieces may be 

 regarded as conjoined dice. Of this the Korean dominoes furnish the 

 best material evidence. Consonant with many other Korean objects, 

 they are typical of an earlier age of Chinese culture than that now 

 existing in China. 



Their material, color of spots, and the manner in which the "one" 

 spots are incised and made larger than the other spots, complete their 

 resemblance to 2 conjoined dice. It we accept this theory the bone- 

 faced bamboo dominoes may be regarded as directly related to the pre- 



