The implement is called
tu-tung ot-tjin, as is also both of the large single holes at the ends.
There are two players who sit opposite each other, each controlling ten
holes. The stake may be ten or twenty wristlets, or perhaps a fowl, or the
black rings that are tied about the upper part of the calf of the leg, but
not money, because usually there is none about. The game is played in the
evenings.
Two, three, four, or five stones of a small fruit may be put in each hole;
I noticed they generally had three; pebbles may be used instead. Let us
suppose two have been placed in each hole; the first player takes up two
from any hole on his side. He then deposits one in the hole next
following. Thus we have three in each of these two holes. He takes all
three from the last hole and deposits one in each of the next three holes;
from the last hole he again takes all three, depositing one in each of the
next three holes. His endeavour is to get two stones in a hole and thus
make a "fish." He proceeds until he reaches an empty hole, when a
situation has arisen which is called gok - that is to say, he must stop,
leaving his stone there.
His adversary now begins on his side wherever he likes, proceeding in the
same way, from right to left, until he reaches an empty hole, which makes
him gok, and he has to stop.
[Illustration: THE GAME MANCALA AS USED BY THE PENIHINGS.]
To bring together two stones in one hole makes a "fish," but if three
stones were originally placed in each hole, then three make a "fish"; if
four were originally placed, then four make a "fish," etc., up to five.
The player deposits the "fish" he gains to the right in the single hole at
the end.
The two men proceed alternately in this manner, trying to make "fish" (ara
ot-tjin). The player is stopped in his quest by an empty hole; there he
deposits his last stone and his adversary begins. During the process of
taking up and laying down the stones no hole is omitted; in some of them
the stones will accumulate. On the occasion of the game described I saw
two with eight in them.
When one of the players has no stones left in his holes he has lost. If
stones are left on either side, but not enough to proceed, then there is
an impasse, and the game must be played over again.
OMA-SULINGS
(On the Mahakam River)
To marry the daughter of a noble the man must pay her father twenty to
thirty gongs (each costing twenty to forty florins). The price of the
daughter of a pangawa is from one to three gongs, and to obtain a wife
from the family of a pangin costs a parang, a knife, or some beads.
