BACKGAMMON is a game in which two opposing players move symbolic men into or out of each other's territory on a board, ac cording as they are respectively entitled to .do so by the throw of dice. Without question a game of that nature was played among the Aztecs of Mexico centuries before the landing of Cortez, and it is probable that it was brought from Asia to the Pacific coast by the original immigrants. Francisco Lopez de Gomara de scribed it in 1552, and Joan de Torquemada 1616 gave additional details of the game, men tioning that the little stones of each contestant varied in color. The Iroquois Indians had a dice game of a somewhat similar sort. Modern backgammon is played by two players who have between them a board, each side of which has alternate black and white angular marks projecting like rays from the rim. Each play.er has 15 flat tablets (similar to those with which drafts is played) called men. One player's men are black, the others are white. Each
player has a dice box for his own use but the. two dice are used alternately by them both. Each die has a number on each face numbered from one spot to six. Each player throws the dice in turn on to the centre of the board: and moves. two men, one man according to the dis tance indicated by one of the dice and the other according to the number on the second dice. So the game proceeds in the usual manner, the players.throwing and moving their men alter nately into and out of each other's territory, until one player has carried all the men from the opposite home (or inner table) into the outer table: and thence into his own outer table and finally into his own home or inner table. The simplest textbook on the subject is that of A. Howard Cady. Consult also Pardon and Anderson, 'Backgammon and Draughts' (New York 1889).