-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Lynn Scheu [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Verzonden: vrijdag 5 november 1999 18:57
Aan: [log in to unmask]
Onderwerp: Re: Toys


Avril,

I think there is an old African board game, Mancala, which is played
with cowry shells (or seeds or pebbles). It consists of a board with
hollowed out bowl-like spaces, in which the players place and rearrange
their pieces. I can find out more about it if you like. Someone else may
have played it? I think a version was sold commercially in the U.S. a
few years ago, but I don't remember if it offered cowries as tokens.

Also, cowry shells were used in primitive cultures in Africa and Asia as
tokens of chance, like dice. Instead of the six options of standard
cubic dice, cowry shells only offer two, aperture or dorsum up, rather
like tossing a handful of coins and counting heads and tails.

Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY
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Dear Lynn,

I think this Board game is called Awale, after a tree of which the seeds are
used as fiches/stones in the game. But of course you can take little cowries
like C. annulus as fiches.  If there is somebody interested I 'll look for
the rules of the game.
Martin C. Cadee, The Netherlands.