Stewart Culin

“ Since the above was written I have learned that the game of Mancala was published in the United States in 1891, under the name of Chuba, by the Milton Bradley Company, of Springfield, Mass., who furnish the following rules and account of the game:
Chuba is an adaptation from a rude game of eastern Africa which is greatly enjoyed by the natives, who squat on the ground and play in holes scooped out of the sand, using shells, young cocoanuts, etc., for counters, which they move from hole to hole. ”

“ A man in the outer row can not be moved until he has been played upon by a man from the inner row.
A move can not begin from a pocket holding a single man if the player has a pocket containing more than one man. When a move does begin from a pocket containing a single man, it can not be played into an occupied pocket.
When all the men which a player has become single, those remaining in his outer row which have not been played on are forfeited to the opponent. ”

“ When a man takes a piece with one next to it, he uses his fingers to squeeze the pieces into his hand, the operation being called “squeezing” (boti) , but this can only be done when one of the pieces is in one of the player’s own cups and the other one or two in that of an opponent. Players sit crosslegged upon the ground, and when the chiefs play large numbers often assemble to watch them. I have given Prince Momolu’s account somewhat at length, as several African travelers have declared the game incomprehensible to a white man. ”

“ The depression in the middle of the board from the Gaboon River is intended to catch pieces that do not fall in the hole for which they are intended. Cheating is practiced, and to guard against it players must raise their arms and throw the pieces upon the board with some violence. Two, three, or four play. The game differs somewhat from that played in Syria and Egypt. A player may commence at any hole on his side. His play ends when the pieces first taken up are played. He wins when the number in the last hole is increased to two or to three. ”

“ Seven cowries are placed in each hole, and the first player invariably wins. My Syrian friend told me that the shells used in the game are brought from the shores of the Red Sea. Mancala is a common game in Syrian cafés. Children frequently play the game in holes made in the ground when they have no board, a device also resorted to by travelers who meet by the way. ”

“ If this empty pocket into which the last man falls is in the inner row and has opposite it a pocket in the opponent’s inner row containing one or more men, the player captures these men and at once removes them from the board. And if there are one or more men in the corresponding opposite pocket of the opponent’s outer row, they must also be taken. ”

“ Before beginning the game each player places a single counter in each of the pockets of his outer row and two counters in each pocket of his inner row, except that the pocket on his extreme left in the inner row is kept vacant and the one next to it holds but one man. ”

“ Had 3 been vacant, he could have taken the men from 2 and those from 4 and 5. Had his last man fallen in the outer row, in 6 for example, the effect would have been of no avail in capturing anything, because the outer row is always noncombatant. ”

“ Furthermore, he must select another pair of opposite pockets in his opponent’s rows from which to remove any men that they contain. In making this choice he is at liberty to pick out any pair of opposites, whether both are occupied or empty, or one is occupied and the other empty. ”

“ Director of the Museum of Archæology and Palæontology,
University of Pennsylvania.
MANCALA, THE NATIONAL GAME OF AFRICA. [1] By Stewart Culin,
Director of the Museum of Archæology and Palæontology, University of Pennsylvania.
[1] Read before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, May 10, 1894.
The comparative study of games is one that promises an important contribution to the history of culture. The questions involved in their diffusion over the earth are among the vital ones that confound the ethnologist. Their origins are lost in the unwritten history of the childhood of man. ”