2. which has since fallen. Remeses III. playing at draughts. In this figure an alteration was made by the sculptor in the head and arm, afterwards covered with stucco, effaced by time. The same king, seated in the Haréem. I suppose these figures had long loose dresses, which being only painted, and not sculptured, have been Fig. 1. The modern Egyptians have a game of draughts, very similar, in the appearance of the men, to that of their ancestors, which they call dámeh, and play much in the same manner as our own. Analogous to the game of odd and even was one, in which two of the players held a number of shells or dice in their closed hands, over a third person who knelt between them, with his face towards the ground, and who was obliged to guess the combined number* ere he could be released from this No. 297. C A game perhaps similar to the Greek kollabismos. position; unless indeed it be the kollabismos (xonλabioμos) of the Greekst, in which one person covered his eyes, and guessed which of the other players struck him. Another game consisted in endeavouring to snatch from each other a small hoop, by means of hooked rods, probably of metal; and the success of a player seems to have depended on extricating his own from the adversary's rod, and then snatching up the hoop, before he had time to stop it. ‡ * This I conjecture from the mode of representing it. + Jul. Poll. Onom. ix. 7. It is taken from Prof. Rosellini's work. I suppose this to be their mode of playing with the hoop. No. 298. a Game with a hoop. C Beni Hassan. Some other games are represented in the paintings, but not in a manner to render them intelligible; and many, which were doubtless common in Egypt, are omitted both in the tombs, and in the writings of ancient authors. It is, however, evident that dice were already used by the Egyptians in the reign of Rhampsinitus; that monarch according to Herodotus, being reported to have played with the goddess Ceres; for the allegorical meaning of the story in no way militates against the fact of such a game having been known at the period in question, and the Egyptians, his informants, were necessarily persuaded that it dated at least as early as his era. I do not suppose that the dice discovered at Thebes, and other places, are of a very remote epoch; they may not even be of a Pharaonic period, but the simplicity of their form, and mode of notation, may lead us to suppose them similar to those of the earliest age, in which too the conventional * number of six sides had probably always been adopted. They were marked with small circles, representing units, generally with a dot in the centre; and those I have seen were of bone or ivory, varying slightly in size. Plutarcht would lead us to believe that dice were a very early invention in Egypt, and acknowledged to be so by the Egyptians themselves, since they were introduced into one of their oldest mythological fables; Mercury being represented playing at dice with the moon, previous to the birth of Osiris, and winning from her the five days of the epact, which were added to complete the 365 days of the year. The modern Egyptians have a game called in Arabic múngala, which is traditionally reported to have been borrowed from their ancient predecessors; but as a full description of it has been given by Mr. Lane, in his curious and accurate account of the customs of modern Egypt‡, it is unnecessary here to repeat it. It is probable that several games of chance were * Vide J. Poll. Onom. lib. 9. c. vii. The Romans and Greeks had another kind of tali, or aorpayaλot, with four sides only marked, the 2 and 5 being omitted. J. Poll. Ibid. + Plut. de Is. s. xii. “ παίξαντα πεττια προς Σεληνην.” Lane's "Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. p. 47. known to the Egyptians, besides dice and mora, and as with the Romans, that many a doubtful mind sought relief in the promise of success, by having recourse to fortuitous combinations of various kinds; and the custom of drawing or casting lots, to decide a disputed question, was common at least as early as the period of the Hebrew Exodus. * Among the various methods adopted by the Romans for ascertaining the probable accomplishment of a wish, one of the most singular, was that of shooting up the fresh pips of an applet, by squeezing them between the finger and thumb, and endeavouring to strike the ceiling, while seated at table; and the success or failure of the attempt augured in favour or against their good fortune, in obtaining the affections of a favourite, or whatever object they had in view. Such scenes cannot of course be looked for among the subjects of the Egyptian sculptures; but that they were super. stitious observers of accidental occurrences, and inferred from them the chance of certain results, is proved to us by the testimony of those who visited the country for "whenever," says Herodotus‡ "any thing extraordinary occurs, they note it down in writing, and pay particular attention to the events *Conf. Leviticus xvi. 8. "And Aaron cast lots upon the two goats." The Hebrew word is 2 Górel; as in Joshua xviii. 10. + Hor. 2 Sat. iii. 273.: Quid cum Picenis excerpens semina pomis, and J. Poll. ix. c. 7. |