Friday, November 29, 2002
Morra
Morra is a finger game of the Rock/Scissors/Paper ilk, but different enough, and deep enough, to make it well-worth exploring in depth. My in depth explorations have included playing it with three to 8 players, playing it as a kind of "Mother May I" where players stand opposite each other, at shouting distance, the winners taking as many steps towards the center as the number guessed (the object being to meet the other player more than half-way), and playing it with eyes closed.
Found in the online edition of the 1911 Encyclopedia (yes, an encylopedia publisned in 1911), we learn that:
MORA, or MORRA (Ital. delay), a game, universally popular in Italy, in which one player endeavours to guess instantly the number of fingers held up by the other. Ancient Egyptian sculptors represent a game of this kind, and it was played by the Romans, who called it micare digitis, or finger-flashing. It, is known to the Chinese and to certain tribes of the Pacific Islands. There are several methods of playing mora, but in the one most common in Italy the two players, placed face to face, throw out at the same instant one or more fingers of one hand, each crying out simultaneously a number guessed to be that of his adversary's exposed fingers. A correct guess counts one; if both guess correctly or wrongly there is no score. The game, which is generally five or nine points, is played for stakes, and with extraordinary swiftness.
I strongly recommend the "extraordinary swiftness" part.
Found in the online edition of the 1911 Encyclopedia (yes, an encylopedia publisned in 1911), we learn that:
MORA, or MORRA (Ital. delay), a game, universally popular in Italy, in which one player endeavours to guess instantly the number of fingers held up by the other. Ancient Egyptian sculptors represent a game of this kind, and it was played by the Romans, who called it micare digitis, or finger-flashing. It, is known to the Chinese and to certain tribes of the Pacific Islands. There are several methods of playing mora, but in the one most common in Italy the two players, placed face to face, throw out at the same instant one or more fingers of one hand, each crying out simultaneously a number guessed to be that of his adversary's exposed fingers. A correct guess counts one; if both guess correctly or wrongly there is no score. The game, which is generally five or nine points, is played for stakes, and with extraordinary swiftness.
I strongly recommend the "extraordinary swiftness" part.
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