“ digitis, ludi genus eft. Sic ludentes, fimul dígitos alterlus
“ manus quot volunt citiflime erigunt, et fimul ambo divinant
“ quot fimul e reâ i fint ; quod qui definivit, lucratus eft ; unde
“ acri vifu opus, et multa fide, ut cum aliquo in tenebris mices.”
“ Micare digitis, is a kind o f game. Thofe who play at it
“ ftretch out, with great quicknefs, as many fingers o f one hand
“ each, as they pleafe, and at the fame inftant both guefs how
“ many are held up by the two together ; and he who guelfes
“ right wins the game : hence a iharp fight is necelfary, and
“ alfo great confidence when it is played in the dark.”
The Chinefe have certainly the acer vi/us, but I doubt much
whether they have faith enough in each other’s integrity to play
at the game o f fingers in the dark, which, in the opinion o f Cicero,
was a ftrong teft o f a truly honeft man. The fame game
is faid to be ftill played in Italy under thé name o f Morra * .
The officers about Yuen-min-yuen ufed to play a kind o f chefs,
which appeared to me to be elfentially different from that game
as played by the Perfians, the Indians, and other oriental nations,
both with regard to the lines drawn on the board, the form o f
the chefs-men, and the moves, from which I ihould rather conclude
it to be a game o f their own invention, than an introduction
either from India or by the army o f Gengis-kban, as fome
authors have conjectured.
* Adam’ s Roman Antiquities.
The
The fpirit o f gaming is fo univerfal in moft o f the towns
and cities, that in almoft every bye-corner, groupes are to be-
found playing at cards or throwing dice. T h e y are accufed
even o f frequently ftaking their wives and children on the hazard
o f a die. It may eafily be conceived that where, a man
can fell his children into flavery, there can be little remorfe,
in the breaft o f a gamefter reduced to hislaft ftake, to riik
the lofs o f what the law has fan&ioned him to difpofe of.
Y e t we,are very gravely affured by fome o f the reverend miffion-
aries, that “ the Chinefe are entirely ignorant o f all games o f
“ chance that “ they can enjoy no amufements but fuch as are
“ authorized b y the laws.” Thefe gentlemen furely could not
be ignorant that one o f their moft favourite fports is cock-fighting,
and that this cruel and unmanly amufement, as they are
pleafed to confider it, is full as eagerly purfued by the upper
claffes in China as, to their ihame and difgraee be it fpoken, it
continues to be by thofe in a fimilar fituation in fome parts o f
Europe. The training o f quails for the fame cruel purpofe o f
butchering each other furnilhes abundance o f employment for
the idle and diffipated. . T h e y have even extended their enquiries
after fighting animals into the infe£t tribe, in which they
have difcovered afpecies o f gryllus, orlocuft, that will attack each
other with fuch ferocity as feldom to quit their hold without
bringing away at the fame time a limb o f their antagonift.
Thefe little creatures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages;
and the cuftom o f making them devour'each other is fo common
that, during the fummer mouths, fcarcely a boy is feen
without his cage and his grafshoppers.
I have