Familiar Colloquies/The Game of Cockal
THE GAME OF COCKAL.
Quirinus, Charles.
Qu. Cato bids us learn of those that are learned, and for that reason, my Utenhovius, I have a mind to make use of you for my master. For what reason did the ancient directors in religious affairs order the clergy to wear ankle-coats that is, vestments reaching down to their ankles? Ch. I am of opinion it was done for these two reasons : first, for the sake of modesty, that nothing of nakedness might be exposed, for in old time they did not wear those sort of trousers that reach from the waist to the feet, nor did they in common wear drawers or breeches. And, for the same reason, it is accounted immodest -for women to wear short coats, long ones being more agree- able to the modesty of the sex. In the second place, not only for the sake of modesty, but also to distinguish them from the common people by their habit ; for the more loose they are in their morals the shorter they wear their coats. Qu. What you say is very probable. But I have learned from Aristotle and Pliny that men have not the tali but only four-footed beasts ; and not all of them neither, but only some of those that are cloven-footed, nor have they them in their hinder legs. How then can the garment be called a talarian garment which a man wears, unless in former days men went upon all-fours, according to Aristophanes's play 1 Ch. Nay, if we give credit to (Edipus, there are some men that are four-footed, some three-footed, and some two-footed, and oftentimes they come from a battle one-footed, and sometimes without ever a foot at all. But, as for the word, you would be more at a loss if you were to read Horace, who attributes the tali to plays. For thus, I think, he writes in his Art of Poetry
Securus cadat, an recto stet fabula talo.
Being regardless whether or no the comedy fall or stand upon its talus.
Qu. Poets have a liberty of speaking as they please, who give ears to Tmolus, and make ships speak and oaks dance. Ch. But your own Aristotle could have taught you this, that there are half tali, which he calls ij/imarpaydAoue, that he attributes to those beasts that are of the lynx kind. And he says that lions have that which is instead of the talus, but it is crooked or turned to and fro ; and that which he calls Aa/Bup/v^wSec, Pliny translates tortuosum [full of turn- ings and windings]. And in the last place, bones are everywhere inserted into bones, for the conveniency of bending the joints ; and there are cavities for the receiving the prominences that answer to them, that are defended on each side with a slippery cartilage, the parts being so environed, or kept in, that they cannot hurt one another, as the same Aristotle teaches us. And there is, for the most part, in these something that answers pretty near both in form and use to the talus. In the lower part of the leg, near the heel, where is the bend- ing of the whole foot, there is a prominence which resembles the talus, which the Greeks call atyvpbv. Again, we see in the bending of the knee a vertebra, which, if I am not mistaken, they call iaiov. And we also see something like this in the hips, in the shoulders, and, lastly, in the joints of the toes and fingers. And, that it may not seem strange to you, the Greeks write that the .word cicrrpayaAoc is, in approved authors, applied to the bones of which the spine is composed, especially in the neck. For they quote you this verse
'Etc e juot av^riv aorpaydAwv EtiArj. My neck-bone was broke on the outside the tali.
And, as Aristotle says, the fore-legs are given to animals upon the account of swiftness, and for that reason are without the tali; the hind-legs for firmness, because the weight of the body bears upon that part, as also it contribiites to strength in those creatures that kick. Horace, to signify that the play was not cut short but acted quite to the end, says, Stetit fixo talo; and uses the word talus in a play in the same sense as we apply the word calx to a book, and also says the umbilicus voluminis, or navel of a volume. Qu. In troth, you play the part of a grammarian very cleverly. Ch. But to confirm it, the more learned Greeks will have 'AorpayaAoe derived of arpt^w, and the privative particle a, because it is never bended, but is immovable. But others choose to derive aorpayaAoe from aordyaAoCj by inserting the letter p, because it cannot stand by reason of its slippery volubility.
Qu. If you go that way to work, you may make a great many more guesses ; but I think it a fairer way to confess ignorance in the matter. Ch. This guess will not seem so very absurd if you consider what great obscurity there is in the primitive origin of words. And besides, there is nothing contradictory in the matter, if you look narrowly into it. The talus is voluble, but it is voluble after such a manner that it renders that part to which it is inserted the more firm for standing, and then it joins one bone to another. Qu. I find you can play the part of a sophist when you have a mind to it. Ch. But there is nothing in the word talus that the etymology of it should perplex us, for that which the modern Greeks call aorpayaXoc, the ancients, of which Oallimachus was one, called aorptov, to whom this hemistich is ascribed, At tea 8' aorpta avvro vrpov ', whence, as the Greeks used the word aarpayaXi^iv, so they also used the word aarptZeiv, to play at cockal.
Qu. What then is that which is properly the talus ? Ch. It is that which now-a-days the girls play with; it was formerly a boy's play, as cob-nuts was ; concerning which there is this Greek sentence, 'Aju^' cicTTpayaAoiai ow9tl^ when they would intimate that persons were angry for a trifle. Again, Horace in his Odes has Nee regna vim sortiere tails. And also in his Sermones, Te talos Aule nucesque, &c. And lastly, that saying of the Lacedemonian, if I am not mistaken, Pueros esse fallendos talis, viros jurejurando. They deny that the talus is found in any animal that is ILLOVVOV } that is, that has a solid hoof, except the Indian ass, that has but one horn ; or that is TroAu^tSfe, that has its foot divided into many toes or claws; of which sort are the lion, the panther, the dog, the ape, a man, a bird, and a great many others. But those animals that are S/^rjAa, that have a hoof divided into two, many of them have the talus, and that, as you said very rightly, in their hinder legs. Man only has not the talus, for two reasons: first, because he is two-footed; and secondly, because his foot is divided into five toes.
Qu. That I have heard often ; but I should be glad to hear where the talus was situated, and what form it has described ; for that sort of play is quite out of doors with boys now-a-days, and they rather affect dice, cards, and other masculine plays. Ch. That is not to be wondered at, when they affect divinity itself. But if I were a mathematician, or a painter, or a founder, I could not represent it more clearly to you than by shewing you the talus itself, unless you would have me describe it algebraically, as they do. Qu. Have you got ever a talus 1 Ch. Here is one out of the right leg of a sheep ; you see it has but four sides, when a cube and a dice has six, four on the sides, one at the top, and one at the bottom. Qu. It is so. Ch. And forasmuch as the upper and lower part of the talus is crooked, it has but four sides, one of which, you see, rises like a ridge. Qu. I see it. Ch. On the opposite side there is a hollow; this Aristotle calls trpovlg, that is, prone ; and this VTTTIOV, that is, supine : as when in the act of copulation, for the sake of procreation, the woman is supine and the man is prone. And the hand, if the palm of it be held towards the ground, is prone, if you turn it up it is supine ; though orators and poets do sometimes confound the use of these words, but that is nothing to the matter in hand,
Qu. You have demonstrated this very plainly to my sight ; but what is the difference between, the two other sides ? Ch, One of them is hollowed a little, to make it answerable to the bone to which it is joined ; the other has no hollow at all to speak of, and is not so much defended with a cartilaginous coat, but is only covered with a nerve and a skin. Qu. I see it very plain. Ch. The prone side has no nerves at all; but to the concavity of the supine part a nerve adheres to the top of the right side and the bottom of the left. Qu. You make it out very plain; but how must I know the right side from the left? Ch. That is very well minded, for I had instructed you very illy, except you suppose me to mean the talus of the right leg. I will tell you, and at the same time I will shew you the situation of it which you desire to know. The talus is in that bending of the leg beneath the hip. Qu. A great many are of opinion it is near the foot. Ch. They are under a mistake. That which is properly called the talus is in the bending of the joints, which the Greeks call KQ^TTOC ; but those of the hinder legs, as I said before, between your foot and your knee, is the tibia. Qu. Why, so I think. Ch. Behind the knee, KajuTTi). Qu. I allow it. Ch. For those bendings which men have in their arms, four-footed beasts have in their hinder legs ; but I except the ape, which is but half man : and so that which is the knee in the leg is the elbow in the arm. Qu. I take it in. Ch. And so one bending answers to another. Qu. You mean of the fore-legs and the hinder legs. Ch. You have it. So that in that bending which answers to the bending which is behind the knee the talus stands, when a four-footed beast stands upright, the upper and lower part of which is a little bended, but not altogether after the same manner ; for the upper part is folded back into a sort of horns, as it were, which Aristotle calls Kfpeu'ae ; Theodorus translates the word antennas, near to which the prone side gives way; the bottom has no such thing. Qu. I perceive it very plainly. Ch. Therefore Aristotle calls that side which is towards the fore-legs supine, and that which is contrary to it prone. Again, there are two sides, one of which inwardly is towards the hinder leg, either the right or left, suppose which you will, the other looks outwards; that which looks inwards Aristotle calls KwAoi', and that which looks outwards iov.
Qu. I see it plainly with my eyes ; but still here is this to be done, to inform me what was the ancient manner of playing with these tali ; for the play, as it is used now-a-days, is quite different from what we find in ancient authors concerning this sort of play. Ch. And truly that is very likely, as we in like manner now pervert the use of cards and dice from the ancient manner of playing with them. Qu. What you say is very probable. Ch. Theodorus Gaza, or, as others rather choose to call him, of Thessalonica, in translating Aristotle's second book of his History of Animals, says, That the side of the talus that looks outwardly transverse, was called canis ; and that which looks inwardly to the other leg, venus : and then he adds to it this of his own, for Aristotle said no more, To ntv rrpavtc; tw TO oe VTTTIOV KCU TO. //tv KwXa tvroc Eorpa/^UEva Trpop afia, TU Sc ia^ta o Kai rac fctpcuac avw. But since it is certain that the throw is called venus's by other persons, as often as in four dice the uppermost sides of them all are different one from another, I wonder by what example Theodorus calls one side venus. Our Erasmus, who is our common friend, who is no negligent observer of these things, in some of his proverbs upon the authority of the ancients, intimates some things of the play of the tali; as in the proverb, Non chius sed cous, he says, that the cous and the size were the same that the Greeks called t^TjTTjv. He relates the same in the proverb chius ad cous (adding that chius was the same with canis, the ace). That the cast of the cous was a lucky cast, but of the canis an u,nlucky one, according to the testi- mony of Persius :
Quid dexter senio ferret Scire erat in votis, damnosa canicula quantum Raderet. And likewise Propertius, Semper damnosi subsiluere canes.
And Ovid, in his second book " t de Tristibus," calls them damnosos canes.
And Martial adds, that the size by itself is a lucky cast ; but if an ace comes up with it, unlucky ; for so he speaks, Senio nee nostrum cum cane quassat ebur. And now as to Yenus's cast, as it is what happens but very seldom, so it is a very lucky throw : as Martial writes in his " Apo- phoreta " ;
Cum steterit vultu nullus tibi gratus eodem, Munera me dices ruagna me dedisse tibi.
For they played with as many tali as every one had sides ; for as to dice, they us.ed to play but with three. But that which Suetonius writes of Octavius Augustus comes nearer to the method of play, reciting out of a certain epistle of his to Tiberius : At supper we played, both yesterday and to-day, like old grave men, at tali ; and as any one threw an ace or a size he laid down a piece of money for every talus, and he that threw vemis took up all. Qu. You told me before that it was a very fortunate throw when any one threw four different sides, as at dice-play the most fortunate cast is midas ; but you did not tell me that this cast was called venus. Ch. Lucian will make that matter plain to you : thus, speaking concerning Cupids, KOI /Ba ITTI tTKOTrou, juaXt<rra St tin-ore TTJJV 6eav airr/v evj3oi]<reie. aorpa-yaXou rreaovrog tcra) ^rj/iari, 7rao-Kuvei T?JC fTTiOv^tag rtveadai vo]Uia>v. He there speaks of venus. Qu. If Theodorus is mistaken, his words only make mention of two sides. Ch. It may be he followed the authority of some author that is out of my memory ; but I have quoted what I find in authors. For there are some that speak of the stesichorian number as to the tali, which they take to be the number eight ; and also of the euripidian, which contained forty. Qu. But it remains that you lay down the rules of the play.
Ch. I am not of the opinion that boys made use of the same rule that Octaviiis writes he observed. Nor is it probable that this game which he speaks of was a common one ; if that had been so, it had been enough for him to have said, After supper we played at the tali. But he seems by this to hint that it was a new method that they had invented among themselves, as one that was fit for persons of age, not puzzling their minds by a careful thoughtfulness, as a great many of our modern games do, so that it is much less fatigue to the mind to study hard than to play. Qu. Prithee, pull out the rest of the tali, that we may try an experiment with them. Ch, But we have no turret nor box to throw them in. Qu. Why, this table will do well enough to try any experiment with them ; or this cup, or cap, will supply the place of a turret. Ch. Nay, hustling them in the palm of one's hand may do well enough. A throw oftener turns up the supine face than the prone face, and the prone face oftener than a size or an ace. Qu. So it seems.
Ch. Now, if there be an ace turned up in the four tali, you shall lay down one piece of money ; if there are two, two pieces ; if three, three pieces ; if four, four pieces : and as often as you throw a size you shall take up one piece. Qu. But what if I should throw size ace 1 Ch. Why, if you will, both of us shall lay down, and neither of us take up ; and he that throws four different spots shall take up all. Qu. What if we throw upper, or under, blank 1 Ch. That throw shall go for nothing, and either you shall throw again or I will take it. Qu. I had rather the other should take the cast. Ch. Now down with your money. Qu. Let us play for nothing. Ch. Would you learn such an art as this for nothing 1 Qu. But it is an unequal match for one that knows nothing of the game to play with a gamester. Ch. Well, but the hope of winning and the fear of losing will make you mind your game the better. Qu. How much shall we play for ? Ch. If you have a mind to get an estate quickly let us play for 100 crowns. Qu. I wish I had them to lay down. But it is the safer way to grow rich gradually. See here is a whole halfpenny. Ch. Well, come on, we will add a little to a little, as Hesiod advises, and this will in time make a large heap. Shake them and throw away. A good beginning : yo.u have thrown an ace ; lay down your money, and acknowledge you are on the losing side. Give me the tali. Qu. That is a better beginning, there is three aces ; lay down. Ch. Fortune is laying a trap for you ; throw away, but hustle them first. Oh, good man ! you have got nothing at all, there is an upper blank and an under one. It is my throw, give me the tali. Qu. Well done again, I see three aces. Ch. Well, do not reckon your chickens before they be hatched. Well, fortune has a mind to make a gamester of you ; but mind, this is my way of learning. But I am of the opinion that Octavius played after a different manner. Qu. How was it 1 Ch. He that threw an ace laid down a penny, as we said ; he that threw a size took up nothing, but the other laid down. Qu. But what if he threw doublets 1 Ch. Then the other laid down so many pieces : and when there was a good heap of money down, he that threw venus took up all ; and you may add this, if you will, that he that throws neither size nor ace shall only lose his throw. Qu. I agree to it.
Ch. But I look upon this to be better, that he that holds the dice shall throw thrice, and then give the throw to the other. Qu. I like that well enough. But how many venus's will you make up ? Ch, Why, three, if you will ; and after that you may make a new bargain, or play who shall take all; for a size conies up bxt seldom, and but to very few neither. Now let us make a lucky beginning. Qu. Well, let it be so j but we had best have the doors shut, lest our queen of the kitchen should happen to see us playing at children's play. Ch. Nay, we rather play at old men's play. But have you got a blab of a servant then '? Qu. So great a gossip, that if she cannot find anybody else to tell what is done at home, she will hold a long discourse with the hens or cats about it. Ch. Soho, boy ! shut the door and lock it, that nobody come and surprise us ; that we may play our bellyful.