|
Evidence for Aw-li On-nam Ot-tjin
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.634
Type Ethnography
Location Borneo
Date 1913-01-01 - 1917-12-31
Rules Played on a board of 2 rows of 10, with a larger hole at either end. 2-5 stones are placed in each hole, 3 is most common. Each player owns one row. Player picks up stones in one of his hole and sows them one in each hole following. Player continues sowing until he sows a seed into an empty hole. Sowing happens counterclockwise. When a hole, after sowing, contains the same number of stones that were in each hole at the beginning of the game, they are captured. When a player has no more stones in his holes he loses.
Content Played by the Penihing people in Borneo as documented by Carl Lumholtz: "The Penihings have a game called ot-tjin which I also observed in other Bornean tribes, and which to some extent is practiced by the Malays...With the Penihings the complete name is aw-li on-nam ot-tjin, meaning: play on-nam fish. An essential of the game is an oblong block of heavy wood which on its upper surface is provided with two rows of shallow holes, ten in each row, also a larger one on each end. The implement is called tu-tung ot-jin, as is also both of the single holes at the ends. There are two players who sit opposite each other, each controlling ten holes. The stake may be ten or twenty wristlets, or perhaps a fowl, or the black rings that are tied about the upper part of the calf of the leg, but not money, because usually there is none about. The game is played in the evenings. Two, three, four, or five stones of a small fruit may be put in each hole; I noticed they generally had three; pebbles may be used instead. Let us suppose two have been placed in each hole; the first player takes up two from any hole on his side. He then deposits one in the hole next following. Thus we have three in each of these two holes. He takes all three from the last hole and deposits one in each of the next three holes; from the last hole he again takes all three, depositing one in each of the next three holes. His endeavour is to get two stones in a hole and thus make a "fish." He proceeds until he reaches an empty hole, when a situation has arisen which is called a gok—that is to say, he must stop, leaving his stone there. His adversary now begins on his side wherever he likes, proceeding in the same way, from right to left, until he reaches an empty hole, which makes him gok, and he has to stop. To bring together two stones in one hole makes a "fish," but if three stones were originally placed in each hole, then they make a "fish"; if four were originally placed, thenb four make a "fish," etc., up to five. The player deposits the "fish" he gains to the right in the single hole at the end. The two men proceed alternately in this manner, trying to make a "fish" (ára ot-tjin). The player is stopped in his quest by an empty hole; there he deposits his last stone and his adversary begins. During the process of taking up and laying down the stones no hole is omitted, in some of them the stones will accumulate. On the occasion of the game i described I saw two with eight in them. When one of the players has no stones left in his holes he has lost. If stones are left on either side, then there is an impasse, and the game must be played over again."
The drawing accompanying the description is of a board with 2x9 holes with one larger on either end. Caption: "The Game Mancala As Used By The Penihings." Lumholtz 1920:435-437.
Confidence 100
Source Lumholtz, C. 1920. Through Central Borneo: An Account of Two Years’ Travel in the Land of the Head-Hunters between the Years 1913 and 1917. Stockholm.
|
