About the Games of Chance
The character which signifies sea-voyaging is a regular feature of the game. Behind this symbol lies a forbidden or secret nostalgia from the days when the ,,Children of the Sea" closed the Door to the Bays to the inhabitants of the Growing City.
As far as the rules of the game are concerned, researchers dare to offer only the vaguest of guesses. It appears probably that the game was one of chance, through which the players received and accepted in good faith advice upon how they should lead their lives, which advice they attempted to follow. One exampple is the combination of steps called the ,,dagger", which symbolised the acceptance of a death of suicide.
In the simpler (Peasant) version of the game, the ,,bridal sequence" is one in which the player takes the first stranger that (he or) she meets to a wedding feast; the dowry is fixed through a further combination of moves.
No evidence can be found for dice having been used in the game. It is likely that certain rhymes or Zen-like responses determine the possible variations of moves. Each of these rhymes contains 33 syllables and a question strongly reminiscent of a riddle. One such:
Light all but overflowed from behind the hill
Tell me, know you who was Mau All-Powerful?
Kowalski-Segner mindennek szinte brutálisan ellentmondva kizárólag a játék úgynevezett "vidéki koppantós" változatát tartja valószínűnek. Szerinte a játék tétje egyszerűen néhány kiadós orrbaverés volt, ami a lakodalmak vége felé igen szórakoztató időtöltésnek bizonyulhatott.
Tény viszont, hogy a játékban dobókockának nyomát sem találjuk. Valószínű, hogy bizonyos rigmusok, zen-koan szerű felelgetősök, illetve a rájuk adható talányos válaszok határozták meg a lehetséges ugrásváltozatokat, lépéseket.
Luke Rhinehart; The Dice Man Talmy, Franklin Ltd. 1971.
Players of Games of Chance in the Vicinity of Takud-Bar
