GAMES of a country take their colour and complexion from the prevailing character of their inhabitants ; and in the different physical condi tions of the regions in the S. and E. of Asia, the amusements of their inhabitants aro widely dis similar. In the hot climate of the plains of British India, though the young boys havo their childish garnet], those of most of tho grown men are seden tary and in-door,—play at chess, pasha or prichiai, cards, pram= (primero?), and music, the drama, jatra, pachali, kavi, bulbul fights, cock-fighting, juggling, athletics interest them ; and the women of Bengal have as their games, tho Ashta-kashta, the Moghul-pathan, Das-pachis, Bag-bliandi.
Kite-flying is a favourite game of the IIindu and Mahomedan men of British India, of Burma, and of China. Wrestling amongst the men of Hindustan and the Burmese is a favourite amuse ment ; every village of Northern India has a gymnasium, and professional gymnasts perambu late the country.
The bulbul and other birds aro taught to fight ; cock-fighting is almost a passion in the Philip pines ; and in Siam a species of fish are reared for fighting.
The people of Manipur are famed for their skill on horseback at tbe game of hockey ; slings, dandaguli, bat and ball are an amusement.
Jafar Sharif, the author of the Kanfin-i-Islam, which Dr. Herklots translated, described many games :—Adole-ke-rnadole ; aglial-zab, also called ek-pari sab-pari ; aka-mukka-danda ; alam-tola ; andhla-badsha ; aughoti-ba.dsha ; ankh-muchani, or blind-man's buff ; ardah-pardah; ritha-champa ; atha-chamak ; atk-matk-champa ; atka-matkal ; bag-bakri or dragon ; cheep karella or trap ball ; galli-dando or tip-cat ; chaugan or hockey ; galli-ebup-ja, hide-and-seek ; and half a hundred others. Tacitus describes the baneful effects of gambling amongst the German tribes, as involv ing personal liberty, their becoming slaves, and being subsequently sold by the winner. In passion for play at games of chance, its extent and dire consequences, the Rajput from the earliest times has evinced a predilection, and will stand unenviable comparison with the Scythian ' and his German offspring. To this vice the
Pandus owed the loss of their sovereignty and personal liberty, involving at last the destruction of all the Indn raceo ; nor has the passion abated. Yudishtra of the Pandava race, having staked and lost the throne of India to Duryodhana, to recover it hazarded Draupadi. By the loaded dice of his foe, sho became the goli of the Kurua. Yudishtra, not satisfied with this, staked twelve yeara of his personal liberty, and became an exile from the haunts of Kalindi, a wanderer in the wilds skirting the distant ocean. Tho spirit of gambling is evinced by several of tho mercantile tribes of British India, 'in their daring specu lativeness as to the rise and fall of prices, which far outvies all that European merchants over indulge in. Most of the advanced nations of the Asiatic islands aro gamblers, and the little fight ing fish of Siam and cock-fighting are largely betted on. In Bali, Lombok, Celebes, anti the Philippines, cock-fighting is quito a passion. The passion for cock-fighting is indeed impressed in the very language of the Malays, which has a specific narae for cock-fighting, ono for the natural spur of the c,ock., and another for the artificial spur ; two names for tho comb, threo for the crow of the cock, two for a cock-pit, and one for a professional cock-fighter. Tho passion is nowhere carried further than in tho Spanish dominions of the Philippines. There it is licenaed by the Government, which derives from it a yearly revenue of about 40,000 dollars. Gambling ie prohibited in British India, and by the Dutch in their Eastern possessions. It is carried on in China to a fearful extent. — Crawfurd ; Frere, Antipodes, p. 213 : Bikinore's Tr. p. 62; Tr. of a Hindu, ii. p. 8; Tod's Rajasthan, L p. 179.