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Evidence for Ceelkoqyuqkoqiji
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.688
Type Ethnography
Location 26°57'15.13"N, 100°13'3.04"E
Date 1992-05-01 - 1993-05-31
Rules 2x5 board with one store on either end. The store to the right of the player belongs to the player.
Play begins with five counters in each regular hole, with one larger stone in each store, but one is slightly smaller than the other.
Game can be played with two or four players. With four players, two players control the larger stones, but cannot move the regular counters.
Players throw out a finger (index, little, or thumb) to determine who plays first. index beats thumb, thumb beats little finger, little finger beats index. This happens at the start of each round.
Counters are taken from any of the holes in the player's row, sowing them in either direction, including the stores. When the last counter of a sowing is dropped in a hole, sowing continues by picking up the counters in the next hole and continuing to sow in that direction. If the hole following the last seed of a sowing is empty, the counters in the hole following this empty hole are captured. If there is an empty hole following the captured hole, and then an occupied hole immediately after it, the counters in the occupied hole are also captured, and so forth until there are two occupied or two empty holes in a row.
Moves may not begin from stores. Both stores are sown into normally by both players. Stores are considered to be empty, except when its large stone remains in it, then the large stone only can be sown or captured and not any other counters that may have accumulated there. Large stones can be sown in any order a player chooses during a sowing.
If a player has no counters in their holes, they may opt to place one counter in each of their holes, taking counters from their store and continue play (called huelshe). If they opt not to, the opponent takes all the remaining stones on the board. If one of the large stones remains in its original store, the player cannot opt out. If the player doesn't have enough stones for all of the holes, they may choose which holes in their row to place the counters, but they must form a continuous sequence of holes with counters.
When the round ends, players must buy back their large stones if they no longer have them, at a price determined in the beginning of the game (usually seven for the larger stone and six for the smaller). (VARIANT: they can both be worth five)
Players then attempt to refill their holes with the original number of counters. The player that has fewer than the original number of counters must borrow counters from the opponent. Debt accumulates over subsequent rounds. When the debt reaches five, the player must sell one of their holes to the opponent. The selling player can choose which holes to sell. The seller then receives five holes to either repay debt or fill holes as long as debt does not exceed four.
Sold holes are always meant to be empty. Anything sown into it is immediately taken by its owner and put in the store and it cannot be sown into during huelshe by either player.
A player can buy back one of these previously sold holes, but must borrow counters from the opponent in order to fill it.
(VARIANT: Two rows of seven with seven counters in each hole; large stones cost seven counters between rounds).
Content "A. Walking goats and buying holes: The Naxi game ceelkoqyuqkoqiji as played in Lijiang Prefecture, Lijiang County, Baisha Township, Longquan village
Principal informants: He Hao, 64, male; Li Qiulan, 63, female, and Wang Qiaoxin, 43, male, all of Naxi nationality. Interviews conducted in May 1992 and May 1993 (ages as of 1992).
Configuration: Normally the board is 2x5, with two larger storeholes, one at each end. Each of the 10 regular holes contains 5 stones at the outset. Each store contains one large stone. The two large stones are slightly different in size. The marger is the mu, female, ie the nanny-goat, the smaller is the gong, male, ie the billy-goat. (These terms are Chinese).
Players and their sectors: The game is played either by two or four players. In the two-player game, each player's sector consists of the five holes on one side of the board. THe store to his right belongs to him, but is outside the sector, as no player can play from a store. In the four-player game, there are two inactive players, each owning a store, and two active players, each with the five holes on one side of the board. Only the active players sow.
Terminology: The kolomei is a large hole, or storehole, one at each end. The kolosso is a small home, or regular hole. five on each side. The lubasso is a small stone ('mei,' meaning 'female,' here has a sense of 'large,' which 'sso', meaning 'male,' here means 'small.')
Preliminaries: To decide who goes first, the two active players simultaneaously throw out either thumb, index finger, or little finger of their right hands. Then the result is determined by the following cycle: index finger (snake) beats thumb (frog), which beats little finger (centipede), which in turn beats index finger. This procedure is followed at the start of each round.
PLay: Play is in either direction throughout the game. Captures and relays are of the standard pussa kanawa type: relay from the postultimate hole of a sowing; if this and the next hole are both empty, the move ends with no capture. If the postultimate hole is empty and the following hole is not, then capture from an alternating sequence of empty and non-empty holes beginning with the postultimate hole. Captures are removed from the board, and are set aside, to be reckoned at the end of the round. Following capture, a move ends.
The large stones are played, relayed and captured just like the small stones. In sowing the contents of a hole containing both large and small stones, the stones may be sown in any order.
Stores: A move may not begin from a store. Both stores are sown into normally by both players. The large stone which is originally in a store is captured and relayed normally by both players. But small stones are not captured or relayed from a store, nor is a large stone which has left its original store. Stores are sinks, in that whatever is sown in them never comes out, bu in effect has been captured by the owner of the store. Hence, except when a store contains a large stone which never left it, it is always 'empty.' That is, if the ultimate hole of a sowing is just before a store, then the stones in the hole following the store are captured. More generally, it counts as 'empty' in constituting an alternating sequence of empty and non-empty holes for a capture. Stones which have fallen into a store may be removed freely by the owner and added to his stock of captured stones.
Huelshe: Whenever a player whose turn it is to move has no stones in any of the holes in his sector, he may 'huelshe' (Chinese "tianzi"), by placing a single stone in each hole in his sector, and then playing normally. If he declines to do this, the round ends, and his opponent confiscates all the stones on his side of the board. If there is still a large stone in its original store, then huelshe is obligatory, as otherwise the large stone would belong to neither player. If a player who wants to huelshe has fewer stones than holes, he may place his stones in as many holes as he can. The choice of holes is his, but there may be no gaps, that is the holes he places singletons in must be consecutive. The round ends by mutual agreement, each player taking the few stones left in his sector.
Rounds: At the end of a round the players attempt to refill their holes as they were initially. The large stones, if they do not now belong to their original owners, must be bought back. Their value is by agreement, but most commonly is this: the mu is worth seven, and the gong is worth six. But it is also acceptable to value them both at five. (It is also acceptable, according to one informant, to play the game with seven holes in a row, seven stones per hole, and the large stones valued at seven).
A player who, at the end of a round, has less than his original complement, must borrow from another player. The debt is remembered, and accumulates from round to round. A player who has a surplus may not refuse to lend. If a player's debt to another reaches five, he is obliged to sell a hole. The seller chooses which of his holes to sell. In return for the hole, the seller receives five stones, which he may use to repay debt and to fill holes, so long as the debt to any player does not exceed four.
Sold holes: A hole which has been sold functions as a sink for the benefit of its new owner. It is always empty (that is, counts as an empty hole with respect to pussa kanawa captures for either player), and anything sown into it is immediately taken by the owner. At the start of a round it is empty, and on huelshe nothing is placed in it by either player. A player is free to relay or play a large stone into a hole he has bought,, thereby capturing it.
If a player who has sold a hole originally in his sector accumulates the five surplus stones needed to buy it back, he may do so, and his opponent may not refuse the transaction. But he must still have or borrow the stones needed to fill it.
Suppose, for example, in a two-player game, that at the end of a round, after debts have been cleared, one of the players has four of the original five holes remaining in his sector, his original large stone, and 26 small stones. He then places the large stone in its store, fills each of his four holes with five stones, buys back the fifth hole for five stones, places his single remaining stone in it, and borrows the four stones necessary to fill it from his opponent. The next round then starts." Eagle 1995: 53-5.
Confidence 100
Source Eagle, V. 1995. "Some Newly Described Mancala Games from Yunnan Province, China, and the Definition of a Genus in the Family of Mancala Games." In A. de Voogt, ed, New Approaches to Board Games Research: Asian Origins and Future Perspectives. Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, 48-63.
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