The Historical Child: Paidology; The Science of the ChildChrisman, Oscar
History
The Historical Child: Paidology; The Science of the Child
Chrisman, Oscar
Children; Manners and customs
The most common indoor games were odd and even, mora, and draughts, all
of which it would appear were played in Egypt from very ancient times.
In odd or even bones, beans, nuts, almonds, and coins were used and any
indefinite number was held between the hands, the game being to guess
whether odd or even. The game of mora was usually played by two persons,
each at the same time quickly throwing out the fingers of one hand, then
trying to guess the number of fingers shown by both. Draughts was a
favorite game of all ranks. It was played by two people on a board
similar to the present checker-board, but the pieces were not flat,
being raised, more like the pieces in chess, and picked up like chessmen
between thumb and finger. In another game hooked rods were used by which
a small hoop was to be snatched from one another, the skill in this was
for one person to get his hoop loose from his opponent's rod and then
snatch it away quickly before he had time to stop it. In one game a
player knelt with face toward the ground between two others, who held
over him in their closed hands shells or dice, the number of which he
was to guess before being allowed to rise. They played with dice and
probably played several other games of chance.
Wrestling was a favorite amusement among the lower classes. They fought
with the single-stick and among the boatmen of the Nile were conflicts
with long poles. Mock fights were common, especially with the military
classes, sometimes quite a great affair wherein a temporary fort would
be erected and attacked by a party with a battering-ram and other
implements of war and vigorously defended by the party within the fort.
There were bull fights, sometimes between the animals and again men
would fight the bulls. The animals were carefully trained to fight and
prizes were awarded to the owner of the victorious combatant. It is
pretty certain that animals were taught to perform tricks and to dance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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