Pick-up sticks
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Pick-up sticks (or pick-a-stick) is a game of physical skill in which sticks have to be removed from a pile without disturbing the remaining ones. One root of the name "pick-up sticks" may be the line of a children's nursery rhyme "...five, six, pick-up sticks!"
There exist some variations and names of this game:
- Mikado (game) (from Europe) (also sometimes called pick-up sticks, jackstraws, spellicans)
- Jackstraws (orig. jerk-straws) (America)
- Spellicans (Britain), Spilikins/Spillikins (orig. spelleken) (Canada)
- Jonchets (France)
- Pick-up sticks (Haida) (Haida native Americans)
- Selahtikan or Scattering Straws (Lenape native Americans)
- Chien Tung (China)
- Casting of lots/Kaiserspiel/Federspiel/Zitterwackel (Germany).
The sticks are made out of ivory, bone, wood (walnut, cherry, oak, beech, ash, pine, bamboo, maple), straw, reed, rush, yarrow or plastics.
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Play
A bundle of colored sticks is held in one hand with the bottoms of the sticks touching a flat table. A helper stick, usually black, is set aside to use as a tool. The first player chooses a stick and removes it by hand by lifting it, pressing down on the tapered end of a stick, or flicking it out with the helper stick. A turn ends if any other stick moves. The next player continues to extract sticks. The sticks may have different shapes / points and the player tries to reach the highest score possible. Shapes are different forms, diameter or paintings.
History
Stick games are ancient and prevalent in all cultures.
In China the sticks were used first for divination. The gambling purposes were later the thing that remained. A spread to Korea and Japan happened, and even to the Haida Indians of British Columbia, and certain Native American tribes in California (the Lenape). It's not clear how or when these Asian games were introduced to North America, though it had to be very early, via the land bridge across the Bering Strait or by ship across the Pacific Ocean.
Herodotus wrote that he had seen in 450 BC a game played by the Scythians that was also known by the Teutons as a play of oracle named "Zitterwackel" (jitter whobble).
As "casting of lots" also mentioned in the Bible.
In China (Japan) a similar oracle was known based on the Book of Changes (I Ching, Yijing),(eki divination). A handful of sticks are scattered to base the reading of destiny (also in respect to the calendar) called "Chien Tung" where a stick is called "emperor stick". This oracle practise was most common around the 12th century during the civil wars, where Zen Buddhism monks were advisors of the warlords.
In the 16th century the Tsuchimikado house adapts the astrology and calendar sciences from China and possibly also the Chien Tung oracle. A dated term for the Japanese Emperor is Mikado.
In the 17th century the Jonchets (French) game is mentioned in references.
The Haida (Native Americans) had also a pick-up sticks (Haida) game.
The Mikado pick-up sticks variant was brought from Europe (Hungary) in 1936 to the United States and became quite popular.
External links
game museum entry on pick-up sticks (http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum/Tablegames/Jackstraws/) article about games of Native Americans (http://www.authorama.com/indian-games.html)
References
- Culin, Stewart; printed by the United States Government (1907). Games of North American Indians (rev. ed. 1975). Dover Publications. 867 pages. ISBN 0-48-623125-9.
- Culin, Stewart; University of Pennsylvania (1895). Korean Games With Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. (Ed. 1958/1960) Games of The Orient. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. 177 pages. (orig. Ed. 1991) Korean Games With Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. Dover Publications. 256 pages. ISBN 0-48-626593-5
- Bell, Robert C.; Oxford University Press (1960 & 1969). 2 volumes. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (rev. ed. 1979). Dover Publications. 448 pages. ISBN 0-48-623855-5.
- Glonneger, Erwin. Das Spiele-Buch. Drei Magier Verlag. ISBN 3-98-067920-9