|
Evidence for Lahemay Waladat
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1242
Type Ethnography
Location 13°29'36.70"N, 39°27'56.70"E
Date 1971-01-01 - 1971-12-31
Rules 2x6 board, Four counters in each hole. Sowing proceeds in an anti-clockwise direction. When the final counter of a sowing falls into an occupied hole, these counters are picked up and sowing continues. During the sowing, when a hole is made to contain three counters, these counters are captured by the owner of the hole, unless it is the final hole of the sowing, in which case the player continues to sow from this hole.. When the final counter lands in an empty hole, the turn ends. 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 "Lahemay Waledat. This game known in Tigrinya as lahemay waledat, or "my cow has given birth," is played with two rows of six holes with four balls per hole, and is closely related to Games 7 and 16. Each player would move alternately, and in an anti-clockwise direction from one of his own holes preferably on his extreme left. Whenever, after the initial rearrangement of balls, a group of three balls (not four as in most other provinces) was formed in any hole those balls would be appropriated by the owner of the row, unless they were produced by the last counter in a player's hand in which case they would belong to that player irrespectively of the row on which they lay. A player forgetting the take his earnings would forfeit them, the hole in question not acquiring any special status as in Game 7 in Western Ertirea. Another variation in the Maqalé game is that a player capturing a group of three counters would not terminate his move, but would continue play until reaching an empty hole. At the end of a round the players would count down their winnings by placing them back into the holes, four to a hole, in the manner described for Western Eritrea, the only difference in the Maqalé game being that when each player was left with two extra balls they would determine their ownership by the above-describe system of hand-play." Pankhurst 1971: 173.
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.
|
