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KNUCKLEBONES (HUCKLEBONES, DIGS, JACK...

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 884 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KNUCKLEBONES (HUCKLEBONES, DIGS, JACKSTONES, CHUCK-STONES, FIVE-STONES) , a See also:game of very See also:ancient origin, played with five small See also:objects, originally the knucklebones of a See also:sheep, which are thrown up and caught in various ways. See also:Modern " knucklebones " consist of six points, or knobs, proceeding from a See also:common See also:base, and are usually of See also:metal. The winner is he who first completes successfully a prescribed See also:series of throws, which, while of the same See also:general See also:character, differ widely in detail. The simplest consists in tossing up one See also:stone, the See also:jack, and picking up one or more from the table while it is in the See also:air; and so on until all five stones have been picked up. Another consists in tossing up first one stone, then two, then three and so on, and catching them on the back of the See also:hand. Different throws have received distinctive names, such as " See also:riding the See also:elephant," " peas in the pod," and " horses in the See also:stable." The origin of knucklebones is closely connected with that of See also:dice, of which it is probably a See also:primitive See also:form, and is doubtless See also:Asiatic. See also:Sophocles, in a fragment, ascribed the invention of See also:draughts and knucklebones (astragaloi) to See also:Palamedes, who taught them to his See also:Greek countrymen during the Trojan See also:War. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to See also:games similar in character to knucklebones, and the Palamedes tradition, as flattering to the See also:national See also:pride, was generally accepted through-out Gteece, as is indicated by numerous See also:literary and plastic evidences. Thus See also:Pausanias (See also:Corinth xx.) mentions a See also:temple of See also:Fortune in which Palamedes made an offering of his newly invented game. According to a still more ancient tradition, See also:Zeus, perceiving that See also:Ganymede longed for his playmates upon See also:Mount See also:Ida, gave him See also:Eros for a See also:companion and See also:golden dibs with which to See also:play, and even condescended sometimes to join in the game (See also:Apollonius). It is significant, however, that both See also:Herodotus and See also:Plato ascribe to the game a See also:foreign origin. Plato (See also:Phaedrus) names the See also:Egyptian See also:god Theuth as its inventor, while Herodotus relates that the Lydians, during a See also:period of See also:famine in the days of See also:King Atys, originated this game and indeed almost all other games except See also:chess.

There were two methods of playing in ancient times. The first, and probably the primitive method, consisted in tossing up and catching the bones on the back of the hand, very much as the game is played to-See also:

day. In the Museum of See also:Naples may be seen a See also:painting excavated at See also:Pompeii, which represents the goddesses See also:Latona, See also:Niobe, See also:Phoebe, Aglaia and Hileaera, the last two being engaged in playing at Knucklebones (see GREEK See also:ART, fig. 42). According to an See also:epigram of See also:Asclepiodotus, astragals were given as prizes to school-See also:children, and we are reminded of See also:Plutarch's See also:anecdote of the youthful See also:Alcibiades, who, when a teamster threatened to drive over some of his knucklebones that had fallen into the See also:wagon-ruts, boldly threw himself in front of the advancing team. This See also:simple form of the game was generally played only by See also:women and children, and was called pent alitha or five-stones. There were several varieties of it besides the usual toss and catch, one being called tro pa, or hole-game, the See also:object having been to toss the bones into a hole in the See also:earth. Another was the simple and primitive game of " See also:odd or even." The second, probably derivative, form of the game was one of pure See also:chance, the stones being thrown upon a table, either with the hand or from a See also:cup, and the values of the sides upon which they See also:fell counted. In this game the shape of the pastern-bones used for astralagoi, as well as for the tali of the See also:Romans, with whom knucklebones was also popular, determined the manner of counting. The pastern-See also:bone of a sheep, See also:goat or See also:calf has, be-sides two rounded ends upon which it cannot stand, two broad and two narrow sides, one of each pair being See also:concave and one See also:convex. The convex narrow See also:side, called See also:chios or " the See also:dog " counted 1; the convex broad side 3; the concave broad side 4; and the concave narrow side 6. Four astragals were used and 35 different scores were possible at a single throw, many receiving distinctive names such as See also:Aphrodite, See also:Midas, See also:Solon, See also:Alexander, and, among the Romans, See also:Venus, King, See also:Vulture, &c.

The highest throw in See also:

Greece, counting 40, was the See also:Euripides, and was probably a See also:combination throw, since more than four sixes could not be thrown at one See also:time. The lowest throw, both in Greece and See also:Rome, was the Dog. See See also:Cassell's See also:Book of See also:Sports and Pastimes (See also:London, 1896) ; Games and Songs of See also:American Children, by W. W. Newell (1893); and The See also:Young Folks' Cyclopaedia of Games and Sports (New See also:York, 1899), for the modern children's game. For the See also:history see See also:Les Jeux See also:des Anciens, by L. Becq de Fouquieres (See also:Paris, 1869) ; Das Knochelspiel der See also:Alten, by Bolle (See also:Wismar, 1886) ; See also:Die Spiele der Griechen and Romer, by W. See also:Richter (See also:Leipzig, 1887).

End of Article: KNUCKLEBONES (HUCKLEBONES, DIGS, JACKSTONES, CHUCK-STONES, FIVE-STONES)

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