DOMINOES (so called, apparcut13, loan the color of the back of the pieces. which is black, like a domino). A game partly of chance and partly of skill played by any number of people from two to a dozen. lint most often by two, with twenty-eight oblong pieces of ivory. bone. or wood, plain black on the back and white on the front marked with black dots in two divi sions on the front. one set of dots on one side of a line dividing the centre, and the other on the opposite side of the line. One of these dominoes is blank on both divisions. the re mainder arc numbered lion) double six: i.e. six in each division, down through the scale. 6•3, 6-4, 6.3, 6-2. 6-1. and so oil. 5.5. 3, 5.2. 5-1. through all the other numbers. Before beginning to play, the twenty-eight pieces are turned face downward. and shuffled or mixed up on the table. so that the position of 1)11 piece eat' be recognized. Then. according to the particular game about to lie played, the whole, or a eerlain proportion of the dominoes, is seleeted. one it a time, by the respective players. Each player sets his dominoes up on edge so that they can not be seen by the opponent. and examines their markings. \Vha(tver dominoes are not drawn form stuck ur reserve. The first player places ono piece face upward un the table, and his opponent 11111-4 place against it i.e. :I 1(1(14e out of his hand correspondin• in pips at one end or the other with the piece laid down —for instance, if a piece is laid down with six on one division and two the other, the second player must pos• or lay against it any piece in his hand whirl) has either of these numbers on it as a two and five, or a six and three) — then the first player i in a two game) must in turn 'lintel'. or nose. from his hand, a
domino to meet the new combination of there being always two ends for him to select to match. If he has no number corresponding to either end he 'passe:' and the opponent plays again; or, if lie i. playing the 'draw' game (a game in which less than the whole number of dominoes was originally dealt), he may draw on stock up to, but never including, the last two dominoes. Thus the game goes on until one of the players has put out all his dominoes and can neither 'match' nor 'draw.' The one who has the smallest number of pips on his unexhausted dominoes wins, or in case of an equality of pips, he who has the fewest dominoes left, wins. The other varieties of the game are the 'draw game; and its va ria t ion 'matador 'the black game' and its variations; the 'block game' and its variations, 'nor sins,' or •all lives.' 'all threes,' 'Sebastopol,' 'tiddle-a-wink,' 'domino pool,' and various other miscellaneous games. The game was not known in Europe until the middle of the eighteenth century, but it has spread all over the world. The rides in detail will be found in Spahling's Home Library (New York, 1895).