There is a genuine native ball-game (_mpira_) played with an india-rubber ball, in which the players stand in a circle, and, after every catch, clap their hands rhythmically and leap into the air. This, being done with great regularity, has a very pleasing effect. In one account I have seen, an umpire is described as calling out ‘Hock! hock!’ after every good catch. This is an impossible word in either Yao or Nyanja; one conjectures it may be meant for _yaka_, ‘catch.’ The well-known game of ‘mankala,’ which seems to be played all the way down from Abyssinia to Mashonaland, and to be of Arab origin, is here called _mchombwa_ and _msuo_. The Abyssinians play it on a board, but this is not at all necessary; the four rows of holes can be made on any bit of smooth ground, and one often sees them in the _bwalo_ of a Nyanja village, where the men sit smoking and gossiping and weaving baskets. It has been said that no European has ever succeeded in mastering this game; and I must own that I have always failed to follow the explanations obligingly given by the players, but Dr. Scott’s description seems fairly clear. Premising that there are two players, each provided with a handful of pebbles or seeds, and six (or nine) holes in each row, it is as follows: ‘The game consists in distributing one’s men along the rows of holes on one’s own side, and again moving them up one hole at a time, until those in any one hole surpass in number those in the enemy’s hole opposite, when the latter are appropriated and placed out of the game; the game is won when one is able to appropriate the last remaining one on his opponent’s side.’ _Chuchu_ is a kind of combination of this game and ‘hunt-the-slipper.’ A spiral is drawn on the ground, and holes made in it; three stones are chosen and two put into the holes. ‘The people are divided into two bodies, and the stone belonging to each party is moved up according to the skill of that party in guessing who has the other stone—this third stone is put in the hands of one by a person who goes all round and pretends to give the stone to each.’ A somewhat similar game is played with ten holes and nine stones, and the boy who goes away (or hides his face) has to guess whether there is a stone in any particular hole at the moment he is asked, or not. Some of the above, especially the _mchombwa_, are also played by adults, who enter into them with great zest. On the coast, and in the Portuguese settlements, they also play at cards, though the game, or that form of it which has now spread to the Shiré Highlands, is said to be ‘unintelligible to Europeans.’ They call the court-cards after local celebrities, such as Sir Harry Johnston (‘Jonsen’) and the late Mr. John Buchanan (‘Makanani’). Speaking of games adopted from Europeans—though it does not strictly belong to our subject—I cannot forbear quoting the following description from Mr. H. L. Duff’s _Nyasaland under the Foreign Office_:—