ANCIENT DICE.

North Otago Times, 3 September 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

ANCIENT DICE.

Archaeologists have sought in vain for the origin of dice, which in various shapes have been used in forms of worship and religious ceremonies since the dawn of history. Their earlier use was for the forecasting of events and obtaining of Divine guidance; their adaptation to a game of chance was, comparatively, quite recent.

There is a surprising number of varieties of dice, but they may be divided into two general classes The most familiar form is the cube. With two exceptions-the Korean and Et-ruscan-cubical dice have the spots so arranged that the six and one, five and two, and three and four are opposite, making the sum of the opposite sides invariably seven, In all ages the number seven has been regarded' with particular awe and as having much mystic.import. The dice just described are notonly proper to modern Europe and America, but to classical Greece and Rome, ancient Syria, Persia, India, China, Japan, and Siam. The'other form is the long, square prism sometimes found amid prehistoric ruins in Europe and existing to-day in India.

A most interesting form is the top or spinning die, with four or six sides, which was twirled with the thumb and second finger, of which a specimen was discovered in the remains of Nancratls,,a Greek colony of 600 11.(3. Two specimens of dice \\w hwa discovered, at SjbJlpi},