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Evidence for Pereaüni
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.684
Type Ethnography
Game Pereaüni
Location Didinga
Date 1927-01-01 - 1927-12-31
Rules 4x8 board. (VARIANT: Longarim and Topotha tribes enlarge the board, up to four rows to sixteen maximum)
Two counters in each hole.
Opening play: Two players play simultaneously, lifting and sowing counters from their outer rows. Rules for sowing and capturing are the same as in the main phase of the game except that all holes in each player's outer rows are considered to be in opposition and back captures can be made from them. Once a counter has been sown into the inner row, this ceases and captures can only be made from the inner row. The opening ends when both players reach an empty hole, and the first player to do so begins play in the main phase.
Main phase: Play begins from any hole on the player's side of the board with counters in it. Singletons cannot move. Sowing happens in an anti-clockwise direction. If the last counter lands in an empty hole, the turn is over.
For capturing: four holes are in opposition when one player has the front row hole occupied and the opponent has both of the holes opposite it occupied. If the last hole in a sowing is in opposition, the player takes the counters in both of the opponent's holes and places them in the empty hole from which the player lifted the counters. The player then sows the captured counters from this hole. Further captures in the sowing can occur in the same way.
If the last counter lands on a hole that is occupied but not in opposition, these counters are picked up and sowing continues.
Play ends when one player captures all the opponent's counters or one player cannot play. The player who cannot play loses.
Content "Definitions.
1. The game is played by two principals, but any number may assist on each side. The one in play or about to start a move is called the PLAYER and the other his OPPONENT. They take alternate moves.
2. A MOVE consists in the complete operation, comprising one or more laps, by which the player manipulates the marbles till he comes to rest in an unoccupied hole. When he reaches an unoccupied hole the move is completed and it is his opponent's turn to make a move.3. A LAP may be of two kinds, simple or incremented. A SIMPLE LAP may constitute a move if it ends in an unoccupied hole, and in the Lango version an incremented lap may also constitute a move. But one move may include many simple and incremented laps.
By a SIMPLE LAP iS meant the act of lifting two or more marbles from a hole and dropping them one by one in the succeeding holes, according to the rules of the particular code. If the final marble rests in an unoccupied hole both the lap and the move are completed. If, however, the final marble rests in a hole containing one or more marbles, these are again lifted together with the marble dropped into the hole and the movement is continued as before, constituting a new lap of the same move. In this way there may be a succession of simple laps before the marble finally comes to rest in an unoccupied hole, when the move is completed.
By an INCREMENTED LAP is meant a lap which starts by capturing and confiscating marbles from the opponent's half of the board, in accordance with the rules of the particular code. Only in the Lango version can an incremented lap begin a move. A move may thus consist of a series of simple and incremented laps, and the order of their succession is conditioned by no limiting rules, but purely by the positions occupied by the marbles of the player and his opponent.
4. By INCREMENT is meant the seizure of such of the opponent's marbles as may be en prise according to the rules of the particular code. A player has no option in the matter but is obliged to take marbles which are lying en prise, and should he by an oversight fail to do so his opponent may insist on a replay of the move.
5. The OPENING consists of the preliminary moves, which are made by the two players simultaneously in order to obtain position. The player who first completes his opening has the first move in the game.
General Principles.
The game is played on a BOARD* containing 32 holes, arranged in four parallel rows of eight holes each. The two inner rows are known as FRONT ROWS, the two outer rows as BACK ROWS. Each hole contains two marbles.
The board is divided into two halves, each player having 16 holes for play and 32 marbles. On the chart the holes of player A are indicated by capital letters, those of player B by small letters.
The block of four left-hand holes of each player constitutes a TURNING BASE.
The object of the game is to deprive the opponent of all his marbles or of as many of them as will prevent his moving. In order to make a move at least two marbles must be together in the same hole.
Didinga Variation.
The marbles are moved counter-clockwise and are dropped one in each hole starting at the hole next to that from which they have been lifted. Thus 10 marbles at hole c, if moved, would be dropped singly in d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, 1, m. Should m be vacant the move then ends. Should m however be occupied by one or more marbles, these, together with the marble dropped in m, continue the movement, starting at n, and the move continues in this way till the last marble in the hand coincides with an empty hole.
If the last marble in the hand drops into a hole in the player's front row which is already occupied, and both the corresponding holes on the opponent's side of the board are also occupied, the marble is left in the hole and the marbles from the opponent's two holes are treated as increment and are captured. With these marbles the player plays an incremented lap, starting again to drop the marbles singly at the hole from which he began the move or, if there have been more than one lap, at the hole from which the last lap started. For example, the player starts at m with 4 marbles, and drops one each at n, o, p, a, but finding 2 marbles at a (which now number 3) he takes them up and drops them at b, c, d, d is occupied by one or more marbles, and at I there are three marbles and at L there are four marbles. These 7 marbles form an increment which the player picks up and with them begins again at b, which was the starting hole of the last lap of the move, and dropping one at each hole ends at h. If h is unoccupied the move now ends; but if it is occupied and E and P are also occupied, he takes up his new increment from E and P and staits again from b. If neither or only E or P is occupied, he continues the move with the marbles which he finds at h, as before.
The player may start his move from any hole which he thinks most advantageous, and it is not incumbent on him to make a move which will result in an increment. Though increments are necessary in order to attain the final object of the game, at certain stages and in certain dispositions a tactical advantage may often be gained by so playing as temporarily to avoid an increment.
The players make their moves alternately till one is rendered immobile, either through having lost all his marbles or through his remaining marbles being disposed singly.
At the beginning of the game the board is arranged with two marbles in each hole, and before the game proper commences the opening has to be played. The preliminary opening is conducted as speedily as possible by both players simultaneously, starting generally at aA or bB. The two marbles are lifted by each from the hole and they proceed as described above, taking the opponent's marbles whenever they are en prise, and each continuing until he ends in a vacant hole. Should the players start the opening further to the left than aA, say at pP, it is obvious that, as there are only two marbles in the hole, the first lap of the opening will end while the players are still in the back row. For the purpose of the opening only and not in the game proper an opponent's marbles are en prise at this stage of play even if the player concludes a lap in the back row. Thus a player starts at 1 and drops a marble at m, n: if his opponent has not moved his marbles from FO, he may take these
(which will of course number 4) and drop them at m, n, o, p: similarly he takes the marbles from HM (if they are still there) and again drops them at m, n, o, p. p must now contain 4 marbles, viz., the original 2 plus 1 from each increment, and taking these up he continues the move by dropping them at a, b, c, d and so on until the move is completed. The opponent's marbles are only en prise to the back row at the beginning of the opening: once the player has turned the corner and reached c increments can only be taken from the front row.
Usually players start their opening simultaneously from the same hole and generally from aA or bB; but this is not obligatory and an expert player will often start from another hole unobserved by his opponent in order to secure a different
" position " or arrangement of marbles which he can exploit by his superior technique to greater advantage. There is a great deal of finesse in the opening and an expert
by observing his opponent, who is playing simultaneously, and by increasing or retarding the speed of his own play may secure a disposition of marbles which will
give him a tactical advantage even if he has to concede his opponent the first move in the game." Driberg 1927: 170-172.
Confidence 100
Source Driberg, J. 1927a. "The Game of Choro or Pereauni. Man 27: 168-172.
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