[MR] Sheep as game animals

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)

Alfredo wrote, in part:

> The knucklebones (actually anklebones) can be used as dice
> (be sure to look up the correct way of numbering the sides)
> or jacks.

The anklebone of a sheep is roughly brick-shaped, and there are
four sides that can land uppermost when it's thrown.  According
to a site on Greek Alphabet Astragalomancy that I found on the
Total Terran Tangle, these sides are traditionally numbered
1, 3, 4, and 6.
BTW, the games you can play with them are called, among other
names, talus, astragalos, knucklebones, hucklebones, dibs, and
checkstones.

>           I believe the femurs can be used for a game a little
> like bowling, I'll check Salaamallah's book.

I checked. it's the sheep's _shin_bones that are used in a game
called loggat.  Salaamallah says that you stand up the shin-bones
like nine-pins and try to knock up down with a stick, but some of
the citations for loggat in the OED say you drive the stick into
the ground and throw the shin-bones at it, trying to be closest
(like in horseshoes).  Maybe both versions were played.

Why is it there isn't any sub-space chatter here about other uses
for that poor sheep?  It's making me seem kind of ghoulish, being
the only one.  I expected to see some postings from scribes wanting
to make parchment, or archers who always wanted to make authentic
bow-strings but never had the guts.

-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
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