Bilboquet

Ah, yes, who can forget those many hours of idle agony spent playing with one's own Bilboquet?

According to Elliot Avedon, curator of the Elliot Avedon Museum and Archive of Games "The French word Bilboquet is related to the French word bille - translated as either a 'little stick' or a child's 'glass marble.' In any event, those that study the origins of language report that the word Bilboquet appears in the French language as early as 1534 AD."

In fact, if you take another look at my story about The Great Ball Drop Experiment, you'll see that it's really what one could only call yet another Bilboquet.

Elliot Avedon's online archive has illustrations of Bilboquet games from France, Italy, Finland, Japan, Peru, Columbia, Mexico, and several Native American tribes. Curator Avedon explains:

"In general there are two major modes. One mode is with a ball (or ball-like object) that is attached to a handle (or peg/pin) tethered to the ball. A stylized cup-like object is also attached to the handle. Variations exist with respect to the shape of the cup - multiple cups, etc., and the shape of the handle. The second mode uses tethered rings that are to be caught on a peg/pin, and these variations are reflected in the shape of the pin or the number of tethered rings. A general variation is the length of the tether in either mode, or the weight of the object that is to be caught. "

Once again demonstrating how a good game gets around - even if no one knows its real name.