Mathematical_Recreations-Kraitchik-2e

282 Mathematical Recreations
number of pieces, one of them is put at the top, half of the
remainder are taken away and the other half are moved
to the next column. (Hence a single piece in a column is
placed, or left, at the head of the column.) This procedure
is continued until no further plays can be made.
The object of the game is to obtain a given final distribution
of pieces in the top line. For example, to get
pieces on 1, 5, 6 we may begin with pieces on 1, 2, 3 in the
2 3 4 5 6
FIGURE 152. Ruma Board.
first three rows. If one places pieces so as to have only 1
and 13 in the first line covered at the end, one has achieved
the Great Jinx.
8. RUMA. Mr. Punga, the author of this game, describes
it as follows:
A playing board, such as that shown in Figure 152, has six
oval pockets along each side and a round pocket, called a
ruma, in each corner.
Four persons play this game, but two or three may play
if some of the players take more than one side of the board.
When the game begins a certain number of red balls is distributed
among the oval pockets in front of each player, be-