Dakon, a Traditional Strategic Game from Indonesia

Reference : http://toysfinder.blogspot.com/2007/01/dakon-traditional-strategic-game.html

This game is very much favoured by children, mostly girls, in Indonesia. It is a typically Javanese games which is played when girls come together to have fun. They get really excited all through the game, smarting each other in the process.

Before starting to play, let us tell you the things to be prepared. They are as follows:

A solid block of wood, measuring about 2 feet long, 7 inch wide and 2 inch thick, on which two rows of shallow holes are carved out lengthwise. Each row has six holes. In addition, there are another two bigger holes; one at each end. Both ends of the wood are curved.

As a rule, we must prepare 72 seeds of soursop, to be nut on the 6 holes, each having six.

How To Play :

Let us suppose Jean plays the game with Mary. First of all, Jean is ready to play. She begins by taking the whole seeds at any hole facing her. The seeds then are dropped one by one in the following holes, including in the one at the end, to be later called the "home" hole. On and on she goes, until she has no more seeds in her hand.

To get another supply of seeds to continue to play, Jean must take the seeds of the holes in which she drops the last seed previously taken, then she continues the round. Possibly the amount of the seeds taken will be six. It is not until she drops the last seed in an empty hole that she could stop playing. The game is now taken over by Mary, who does the same round as Jean has just done.

It goes alternately on and on until none of them has any seeds in their hands. All they have to do now is count the seeds in their own home holes minus the seeds still left in her holes; that's the way to count the end result. Suddenly Jean smiles proudly, face beaming after knowing that the amount of the seeds in her home hole, is more than Mary's, Jean the winner, proudly glances at the wry face of Mary, who turns out to be the loser.

The picture can be seen on http://toysfinder.blogspot.com/2007/01/dakon-traditional-strategic-game.html