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Evidence in Bagara
2 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.698
Type Ethnography
Game Kara
Date 1925-01-01 - 1925-12-31
Rules Can be played by any number of players; each player has three holes and one store. The stores are located in the center, with the players' holes surrounding them.
Seven counters in each hole.
Players begin by picking up the counters in one of their holes and sowing them anti-clockwise. If the final counter lands in an opponent's hole or the rightmost hole belonging to the player sowing, having dropped counters in the opponent's holes making them contain two, four, or six counters, the contents of those holes are captured.
The player who has the most counters at the end of the game wins.
Content "3. Kâra
This is a Bagara game of something the same kind as the last two described.
Any number of players take part and each has three houses and a store for what he "eats" (a makkâla, plural makâkîl). Each house contains initially seven counters, generally small balls of dried clay, called collectively tûb (bricks).
Fig. 7 shows the board set for four players, MM being the Makâkîl. A player moves by picking up the contents of any one of his houses and distributing the counters one at a time, round the board in an anti-clockwise direction. If his move comes to an end in an opponent's house or in the right-hand one of his own houses and also leaves two or four or six counters in any of the opponent's houses then the player "eats" any such householed of two, four, or six and the move passes to the next player. The winner is the person whose makkâla contains the most counters at the end of the game.
If there are several players, any given house is apt to become very full of counters, with the result that it is difficult to foresee the effect of moving its contents. This explains an otherwise obscure allusion to the celebrated Sheikh Musa Mâdibbo, late Nazir of the Rizeigat tribe, as "bahr Kâra gharig"—"a deep sea of Kâra". The Nzir's reputation was that he would sit in council with his sheikhs and elders, and would listen to all their opinions, but would not disclose his own, so that the result of the "meglis" was as unpredictable as that f moving the contents of a very full hour of Kâra." Davies 1925: 142
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Confidence 100
Source Davies, R. 1925. 'Some Arab Games and Puzzles.' Sudan Notes and Records. 8: 137–152.
Id DLP.Evidence.757
Type Ethnography
Game Dala
Date 1925-01-01 - 1925-12-31
Rules 6x6 board. Each player has twelve sticks. One player's sticks are without bark to distinguish them. Players placing their sticks in empty spaces, filling the central four first. Once all of the sticks have been placed, the players may move their sticks orthogonally one space. If a player can bring three of their sticks in a row, they may then remove one of the opponent's sticks. The player who can no longer play loses.
Content "2. Dala
This game is played by all Baggara tribes. I learnt it from the Homr and have seen it played by the Rizeigat. It is very much more difficult than Sîja, to play well, and is fully as worthy as draughts of the attention of European players.
Dar Homr contains very little sand and no stone at all, so Dâla is played on a raised board made of soft mud, divided into six rows of six squares, marked by holes, and the counters, of which each player has twelve, take the form of sharpened sticks, about six inches long. Those of one player are distinguished by removal of the bark, which is left on those of the other player.
The holes are called Nugâr (sing., Nûgara) and the sticks 'Îdân (sing. 'Ûd). The players set the board by sticking in their sticks (tchakka is the verb) one at a time, alternately, the rule being that the four middle holes of the board must be filled, after which a player may place his stick in any vacant hole he likes. The diagram, Fig. 2, shows a possible distribution of the twenty-four sticks on the board. Here, again, the setting of the board is done with a view to, and largely determines, the subsequent line of play amd there is room for a high degree of skill in doing it.
The rule is that the two players make alternate moves. If a move brings three of the player's sticks into line and adjacent to each other, or (if four of the sticks were previously in line and adjacent) leaves three in line and adjacent, then the player can remove from the board any one of his opponent's sticks which he may select.
This bringing of sticks into line and the resulting removal of one of the opponent's sticks is called a ta'na. Thus, in fig. 2, by moving the stick X1 into line with X2 and X3 the player makes a ta'na and can remove any one of the sticks ).
If a player gets five sticks into the positions indicated in Fig. 3 he is said to have a "bull" which yields a ta'na every time he moves the stick X1 up or down, and, if it is beyond the opponent's power to break up the bull, he mocks him, saying "Dejj! Tsp tsp, tsp, tsp, tsp —" these being the sounds the herdsboy makes to cause a bull to lead a herd straight ahead. Tactful remarks to a defeated opponent, in fact, are no part of the Homrawi convention. When the issue is no longer in doubt, for instance, he will pronounce the jingle "Jebbid Hateibak: Biga li'eibak"—"Pull up your little sticks: your game's up." Davies 1925: 139-140.
Confidence 100
Source Davies, R. 1925. 'Some Arab Games and Puzzles.' Sudan Notes and Records. 8: 137–152.
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