50 
Tra7isacfions of the Foyal Society of South Africa. 
At tlie beginiiiiig of a game each player * places two pieces — small 
stones, seeds, or fragments of dried dung — in each of the holes of his outer 
row, and the same number in each of the holes in the right half of his inner 
row as shown in Fig. 1, I. 
The object of the game is to capture all the pieces of one's adversary or 
to put him in a position in which he is no longer able to move any of his 
pieces. The moves are made alternately. The mode of progression consists 
in each of the players in turn taking up the contents of any of the holes on 
his side of the l)oard, in which there are two or more pieces, and distributing 
these one at a time in a counter-clockwise direction in the succeeding holes 
of the same row. If the last of the pieces thus taken up and distributed by 
one of the j^layers is dropped into an empty hole, his move comes to an 
end and his opponent plays. If, on the other hand, it is dropped into an 
occupied hole, one of two things happens : 
(a) If the hole in cjuestion is in his inner row and has opposite it in the 
inner rovi of his opponent an occupied hole he is entitled to capture (||«m) 
the pieces in this hole, together with those in the corresponding hole of his 
opponent's outer row ; the men " thus captured being distributed one at a 
time in the succeeding holes of his inner row.f Thus in Fig. 1, III 1, for 
example, the player Q has just finished a move by dropping a ''last man" 
in hole c-7. As this hole was occupied — it now contains three pieces — 
and the hole h-7 in P's inner row is also occupied, he is entitled to capture 
the single piece in b-7 and the two pieces in a-7. He does so, the appro- 
priation being represented by a black rectangle, and drops the captured 
pieces one at a time into c-6, c-5 and c-4> (Fig. 1, III 2) where his move 
comes to an end. 
(h) If the hole in his opponent's inner row, opposite to the one in 
which his last piece was dropped, is not occupied ; or if the last of the 
pieces he took up is dropped into one of the holes in his outer row contain- 
ing one or more pieces, he has to continue his move by taking up all the 
pieces in the hole in question, including the one that he dropped, and 
distributing them as before. A number of instances of this occur in the 
game described on the following pages. 
Under no circumstances may a move be inaugurated from a hole con- 
taining a single piece. When, therefore, a j^layer has only one piece in 
each of his occupied holes, he can no longer move and loses the game. 
\\Hus differs in this respect from all the games to be subsequently 
dealt with. 
A player will sometimes play for safety by transferring the bulk of his 
pieces to the holes of his outer row. The Hottentot describes this manoeuvre 
* The description refers to a two-handed game. 
t Or of his outer row if the hole or holes in which the " men " were captured 
are at the end of the board. 
