|
Marbles date back to Roman times. In colonial
times they were small round balls made of baked or glazed clay, stone, glass or even nut
shells. The object of marble games is to roll, throw, drop, or knuckle marbles against
an opponent's marbles, often to knock them out of a prescribed area and so win them. (Knuckling
is the act of placing a marble on the forefinger, balancing that finger or the bottom of
the hand against the ground, and shooting the marble outward with the thumb.)
One common game is called taw, ringtaw
or ringer. The principle of the game is that a marble called a shooter or taw is launched
by your thumb at smaller marbles in a circle marked on the ground.
Sometimes the marbles are arranged in a
ring. The shooter wins those marbles that are driven outside of the circle. The circle
can be as much as 6 to 10 feet in diameter. Another form of play is when players shoot
or roll marbles from a good distance away from the circle. The target is a valuable marble
in the middle of the circle that the players try to bump. All marbles that fail to hit
the target are taken by the owner of the target marble in the middle of the circle. The
game continues until either the marbles of the challengers are exhausted or a challenger's
marble hits the target. When this hit is made. the challenger wins the target marble and
may set it up for others to shoot at.
"Marbles." Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia, (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft
Corporation.
|
