Board games from the city of Vijayanagara (Hampi ... - Gioco dell'Oca.

10
B OARD G AME S TUDIES 6, 2003
When Russians in Siberia played sáhkku there in the 1890s, they apparently followed
a quite different tradition. According to the Swedish scientist V. Carlheim-Gyllensköld,
they used to play with 2x13 warriors and one king on a 3x13 lines board. In this game
3 small 6-sided dice were used. One side was marked with a cross, named sakko, the
other sides with 1, 2, 3 and 4 strokes, while the sixth side was left blank. (3) This deviating
dice tradition is very interesting, but for the present it is very difficult to say if this
tradition is older or younger than the Scandinavian one.
Did the four-sided Scandinavian dice reach Scandinavia together with the games? If
this is the case, they probably had their origin somewhere in the Islamic world. The random
generators connected with the tâb or sîg games of Africa and Asia are very different
from those used in daldøs(a) and sáhkku, however. In a few cases sea shells are used,
the so-called “cowries”, but more often these games are played with two-sided dice sticks.
Alternatively, the dice used in the two Scandinavian games may have had their roots in
Northern Europe.
In my search for possibly related types of dice I have discovered several Northern
European types of four-sided dice sticks, which apparently have been overlooked by
scholars. At least I have not been able to find any systematic investigation of these. I
think they are quite interesting in themselves, regardless of their eventual relationship
with the daldøsa and sáhkku dice.
The North-European stick dice which I will discuss in this article, can be divided into
three groups:
1) stick dice used in a vertical race game,
2) stick dice used in ‘put-and-take’ or ‘teetotum’ games,
3) stick dice used in out door stick games as a substitute for a stick or ball.
Climbing to heaven – a Northern Swedish shepherd’s game
In 1908 the Swedish ethnologist Nils Keyland described of a peasant game which
may be regarded as a sort of vertical race game. (4) This Northern Swedish shepherd’s
game is testified from Värmland, Dalarna, Jämtland, as well as from the northernmost
Swedish regions: Norrbotten and Västerbotten where it was known as fårhimmel “sheep
heaven” (Fig. 2 and 3). In Dalarna it was called att kappas till gudsrike or klättra till
himla “competing for the kingdom of God” or “climbing to heaven”. The game was also
known in Estonia and in Finland, where it was called himmelsstegen “the ladder to heaven”.
(5) I have not been able to find any references to other games of this type.
This race game is played by two (or more) persons with a roughly 1 m long Jakobståkki
“Jacob’s ladder”, which is usually carved from a tiny tree top with bits of branches
left on two of its sides. Each player has a small branch fork or hook, about 5 cm long.
Both (or all) players use the same 3 cm long wooden die. One of its sides is marked with
a cross, on the next side it has one stroke, and on the following side two strokes. The last
side is blank. The ladder is set upright in the field. One player throws the die up into the
air. If it falls down with one stroke up, the thrower may hang up the hook on the first
(lowest) twig. Should it fall down with two strokes up, then he is allowed to move it
two steps up in stead, placing it on the second twig. The person who throws is permit-