From two to five players sit on each side. Each of the partners on either side appears to have an equal right of moving the counters. The two lines of holes near each set of partners is not intruded upon by the counters of the opponents, but opponents clutch up the counters of the opposite side when such counters have no counter either in the hole behind or in front, and this snatching up of counters is governed by rules which in some moves closely resemble those of chess, while double counters in a hole are as influential as kings in draughts. Some of the moves strongly remind one of “fox and geese,” each side moving in turn, and later in the game, when the holes are full of counters, each side chases the other along parallel lines of holes to the end of the set. This chasing is a cause of great excitement, and is concluded in a perfect babel of shouting, each player as he moves a counter in the chase calling out _in-da!_ and when the final hole is reached, _ga!_ Always while in camp there is a perpetual shouting of _in-da! in-da! in-da!_ followed by the triumphant shout of _ga!_ The subject of heated discussion during the game is as to the amount of cheating the other side has effected, and the tumult caused by the discussion of this topic, especially with an extraordinarily talkative people like the Makalangas, can only be but partially imagined. The perpetual _in-da! in-da! in-da!—ga!_ trespasses into one’s dreamland. After a week of this never-ceasing _in-da!_ the sets of holes were ordered to be removed to a more reasonable distance from the hut door; still, one cannot even now escape this perpetual and monotonous din. Yet in all their excited disputations they have never once got beyond mere words. The picaninnies sometimes join in at the larger sets, but a prompter always assists them. It is the custom for the losers, and not the victors, to record the state of the series of games. This is done by placing large stones, one for each game lost, on the side where the losers sit. The losers invariably have to provide the stones. When all the large stones within arm’s reach have been used up as records and the losers have to get up to fetch a stone, there is general laughter in the camp, even from those who are not immediately watching the game. The stakes are for “sisspences,” or for _doro_ (native beer), but both winners and losers share alike. Towards the end of a month, when wages are becoming due, the game causes increased excitement, and plenty of _doro_ is brewed by speculative villagers to meet the probable demands of the boys.[24] The two most pernicious vices of the Makalanga are their inveterate love of _I’daha_ (wild hemp) smoking, and of _doro_ drinking.