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Evidence for Qelat
2 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1168
Type Ethnography
Location 15°46'45.68"N, 38°26'55.28"E
Date 1971-01-01 - 1971-12-31
Rules 2x6 board. Play begins with four counters in each hole. A player picks up the contents of any of their holes and sowing them in an anti-clockwise direction, picking up the contents of the last hole in which his counters fall, and continuing sowing. This continues until the last counter falls in an empty hole. Then it is the other player's turn. A hole is captured when the last ball is dropped into an opponent's hole containing three counters, making it four. A player cannot then take from one of these holes that they have captured. Therefore, the player cannot begin a turn from their own captured hole nor can they continue sowing from it if their last counter falls into it. If the last counter of a sowing falls into an opponent's captured hole, one of those counters are removed from the board and placed in the store, and the sowing continues with the contents of any of the player's holes. Ownership of a hole continues even if it becomes empty. When a player cannot move (i.e., there are no counters in their holes except any that are in captured holes), the opponent continues to move until the player is able to move. Play continues until all counters are either placed in the store or in captured holes and thus cannot be moved. Players then count their pieces by p[lacing four in each hole, and the player who has more than their original number takes ownership of one of the opponent's holes for every four counters more than the original number that have been taken. If no player took four more than the original, the player with three extra gets the hole, if each player has two extra they draw lots to see who gets an extra hole. Play then begins again as before. The game ends when one player owns all of the counters, and thus all of the holes. If toward then end of the game, when a player has been reduced to a single hole and it is captured by the opponent, the opponent captures the four counters involved in the capture. The hole remains in the possession of its owner, and is able to utilise any pieces falling into that hole on subsequent turns, but may also capture from this hole as though the hole had been captured by the opponent.
Content "This game played by Qala Ab is based on two rows of holes, with four balls or counters per hole, and is strikingly similar to the gabata of central Ethiopia...The game would begin by one of the players picking up the entire contents of any of his holes, known in Bilén as bét, literally "house." Moving always in an anti-clockwise direction he would then drop these balls one by one in the following holes, his own or his opponent's, and, on dropping the last counter he held in his hand, would pick up the contents of the hole in which it fell. He would continue in this manner, dropping and taking up balls, until he reached an empty hole. There he would stop, and it would be the other player's turn to play. The two players, moving alternately and invariably in an an anti-clockwise direction, would continue in this way, known in Bilén as ekwarna, literally "a child is born to me." Such a capture would be effected by dropping the last ball in any hand into an enemy hole containing three balls which would thus be increased to four. A player could not take from his own ekwarna with the result that balls would tend to accumulate in such holes. A player dropping the last counter of any hand into one of his own captured holes might say lagadi yekura in Bilén, literally "grow up, my child!", or sata waleya in Tigré, literally, "drink, my child!" When, on the other hand, a player alighted with the last ball of his hand on an ekwarna captured by his opponent he would take, or "eat," one of the counters in that hole, and put it, together with the ball effecting this capture, aside as his takings, usually by placing them in a larger hole at the end of the board. He would then continue with his move by picking up the contents of any of his holes, and moving them in the normal way. The process of capturing from an ekwarna is known as qunna in Bilén or bela'e in Tigré. A player's ownership of an ekwarna continued even if it became empty. Thus balls subsequently entering such a hole belonged to the player who captured it, while his opponent on dropping the last counter of any hand there would put this counter aside as his takings. A player left without counters in any of his holes other than those captures as ekwarna would be unable to move. In such case his opponent would effect one or more additional moves, but the incapacitated player would resume play if and when balls came into any of his free holes. The round would finally come to an end when all the counters were captured either by being put aside or accumulated in ekwarna. The players would then count out their total earnings by placing them back in their holes, four counters per hole. A player who had captured more than his original number of counters would gain one hole from his enemy for every four balls he captured. Should a player have won three extra counters his opponent, who had one extra counter, was obliged to cede to the player with three who thus acquired an additional hole. If, on the other hand, the two players were each left at the end of the round with two extra balls they would draw lots to decide to whom they should belong and who in consequence should gain the hole at issue. The game, often after a series of rounds, would eventually end with one of the players gaining a monopoly of all the balls and hence of all twelve holes....Towards the end of the game when a player had been reduced to the ownership of only a single hole which was then captured as ekwarna by his opponent the latter was obliged to put aside as his takings the four counters involved in the capture. The hole in question was thus left in the possession of its former owner who would be able to utilise all counters subsequently falling there and would moreover be entitled to "eat" from that hole, as would have been the case earlier in the game with any other ekwarna." Panhurst 1971: 167-168.
Confidence 100
Genders Male
Source Pankhurst, R. 1971. Gabata and Related Board Games of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia Observer 14(3):154-206.
Id DLP.Evidence.1299
Type Ethnography
Location 15°36'28.30"N, 39°27'19.36"E 15°19'49.29"N, 38°56'0.42"E
Date 1971-01-01 - 1971-12-31
Rules 2x6 board. Play begins with four counters in each hole. A player picks up the contents of any of their holes and sowing them in an anti-clockwise direction, picking up the contents of the last hole in which his counters fall, and continuing sowing. This continues until the last counter falls in an empty hole. Then it is the other player's turn. A hole is captured when the last ball is dropped into an opponent's hole containing three counters, making it four. A player cannot then take from one of these holes that they have captured. Therefore, the player cannot begin a turn from their own captured hole nor can they continue sowing from it if their last counter falls into it. If the last counter of a sowing falls into an opponent's captured hole, one of those counters are removed from the board and placed in the store, and the sowing continues with the contents of any of the player's holes. Ownership of a hole continues even if it becomes empty. When a player cannot move (i.e., there are no counters in their holes except any that are in captured holes), the opponent continues to move until the player is able to move. Play continues until all counters are either placed in the store or in captured holes and thus cannot be moved. Players then count their pieces by placing four in each hole, and the player who has more than their original number takes ownership of one of the opponent's holes for every four counters more than the original number that have been taken. If no player took four more than the original, the player with three extra gets the hole, if each player has two extra they draw lots to see who gets an extra hole. Play then begins again as before. The game ends when one player owns all of the counters, and thus all of the holes. If toward then end of the game, when a player has been reduced to a single hole and it is captured by the opponent, the opponent captures the four counters involved in the capture. The hole remains in the possession of its owner, and is able to utilise any pieces falling into that hole on subsequent turns, but may also capture from this hole as though the hole had been captured by the opponent.
Content "Magazeb II. This game based on two rows each of six holes with four balls per hole, is identical to Game 5 found in parts of Western Eritrea, and was played by Ibrahim Johar, a man of Masawa now resident in Asmara." Pankhurst 1971: 171.
Confidence 100
Ages Adult
Genders Male
Source Pankhurst, R. 1971. Gabata and Related Board Games of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia Observer 14(3):154-206.
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