Talus

“Talus. The huckle-bones of sheep and goats were used to play with from the earliest times, principally by women and children, occasionally by old men. The following cut, taken from an ancient painting, represents a woman, who, having thrown the bones upwards into the air, has caught three of them on the back of her hand. When the sides of the bone were marked with different values, the game became one of chance. The two ends were left blank, because the bone could not rest upon either of them on account of its curvature. The four remaining sides were marked with numbers 1, 3, 4, 5; 1 and 6 being on two opposite sides, and 3 and 4 on the other two opposite sides. Two persons played together at this game, using four bones, which they threw up into the air, or emptied out of a dice-box, and observing the numbers on the uppermost sides. “ &mdash Smith; 1873

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