KNUCKLEBONES (HUCKLEBONES, DIGS, JACKSTONES, CHUCK-STONES, FIVE-STONES)  , a game of very ancient origin, played with five small objects, originally the knucklebones of a sheep, which are thrown up and caught in various ways . Modern " knucklebones " consist of six points, or knobs, proceeding from a common base, and are usually of metal . The winner is he who first completes successfully a prescribed series of throws, which, while of the same general character, differ widely in detail . The simplest consists in tossing up one stone, the jack, and picking up one or more from the table while it is in the air; and so on until all five stones have been picked up . Another consists in tossing up first one stone, then two, then three and so on, and catching them on the back of the hand . Different throws have received distinctive names, such as " riding the elephant," " peas in the pod," and " horses in the stable." The origin of knucklebones is closely connected with that of dice, of which it is probably a primitive form, and is doubtless Asiatic . Sophocles, in a fragment, ascribed the invention of draughts and knucklebones (astragaloi) to Palamedes, who taught them to his Greek countrymen during the Trojan War . Both the Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to games similar in character to knucklebones, and the Palamedes tradition, as flattering to the national pride, was generally accepted through-out Gteece, as is indicated by numerous literary and plastic evidences . Thus Pausanias (Corinth xx.) mentions a temple of Fortune in which Palamedes made an offering of his newly invented game . According to a still more ancient tradition, Zeus, perceiving that Ganymede longed for his playmates upon Mount Ida, gave him Eros for a companion and golden dibs with which to play, and even condescended sometimes to join in the game (Apollonius) . It is significant, however, that both Herodotus and Plato ascribe to the game a foreign origin . Plato (Phaedrus) names the Egyptian god Theuth as its inventor, while Herodotus relates that the Lydians, during a period of famine in the days of King Atys, originated this game and indeed almost all other games except chess .

There were two methods of playing in ancient times . The first, and probably the primitive method, consisted in tossing up and catching the bones on the back of the hand, very much as the game is played to-

day . In the Museum of Naples may be seen a painting excavated at Pompeii, which represents the goddesses Latona, Niobe, Phoebe, Aglaia and Hileaera, the last two being engaged in playing at Knucklebones (see GREEK ART, fig . 42) . According to an epigram of Asclepiodotus, astragals were given as prizes to school-children, and we are reminded of Plutarch's anecdote of the youthful Alcibiades, who, when a teamster threatened to drive over some of his knucklebones that had fallen into the wagon-ruts, boldly threw himself in front of the advancing team . This simple form of the game was generally played only by women and children, and was called pent alitha or five-stones . There were several varieties of it besides the usual toss and catch, one being called tro pa, or hole-game, the object having been to toss the bones into a hole in the earth . Another was the simple and primitive game of " odd or even." The second, probably derivative, form of the game was one of pure chance, the stones being thrown upon a table, either with the hand or from a cup, and the values of the sides upon which they fell counted . In this game the shape of the pastern-bones used for astralagoi, as well as for the tali of the Romans, with whom knucklebones was also popular, determined the manner of counting . The pastern-bone of a sheep, goat or calf has, be-sides two rounded ends upon which it cannot stand, two broad and two narrow sides, one of each pair being concave and one convex . The convex narrow side, called chios or " the dog " counted 1; the convex broad side 3; the concave broad side 4; and the concave narrow side 6 . Four astragals were used and 35 different scores were possible at a single throw, many receiving distinctive names such as Aphrodite, Midas, Solon, Alexander, and, among the Romans, Venus, King, Vulture, &c .

The highest throw in

Greece, counting 40, was the Euripides, and was probably a combination throw, since more than four sixes could not be thrown at one time . The lowest throw, both in Greece and Rome, was the Dog . See Cassell's Book of Sports and Pastimes (London, 1896) ; Games and Songs of American Children, by W . W . Newell (1893); and The Young Folks' Cyclopaedia of Games and Sports (New York, 1899), for the modern children's game . For the history see Les Jeux des Anciens, by L . Becq de Fouquieres (Paris, 1869) ; Das Knochelspiel der Alten, by Bolle (Wismar, 1886) ; Die Spiele der Griechen and Romer, by W . Richter (Leipzig, 1887) .