Profit pit

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The winning trough , also known as the storage trough (often shortened to: storage ), is used to store captured game pieces in various Mancala variants. In contrast to the game hollows , they do not take part in the game itself. With two exceptions, profit hollows only exist in variants in which game pieces are captured and then removed from the game. However, not all Mancala boards of this type have profit hollows, as the game pieces can also be collected differently.

There are profit hollows especially with two-row, rarely also with four-row Mancala variants. Boards with profit troughs are particularly widespread in the Caribbean , West Africa , Central Africa, India , Sri Lanka and in tropical island Asia .

The winning pits are usually much larger than the game pits, as they have to accommodate many game pieces. They are usually at the two ends of the board, but in India and Sri Lanka they are usually in the middle of the board. In games in which the pieces are distributed counter-clockwise, the player's respective winning trough is to the right of him, in games in which the game is played clockwise, on the left.

Most of the time the profit hollows are passed over when distributing. In Congkak and closely related games that are known in southern Asia, however, your own winnings are also given a stone before the train reaches the opposing side of the board. If a move ends with the last stone in his own profit slot, the player may move again. This also applies to Kalaha , a variant that was invented in the USA in 1940.

In the game Rath of the Shilluk , who live in Sudan , and the Malaysian Papan-Dakon , profit hollows exist, although there is no beat in these games. They only fill up when they are distributed.

In Ethiopia , Eritrea and Somalia there are numerous variants, including z. B. Qelat , Sadeqa , Selus and Layli Goobalay , where gambling holes are converted into profit holes. The Tuz in the Central Asian Mancala variant Toguz Korgool represent a parallel .

literature

  • de Voogt, A. Mancala Board Games . British Museum Press, London (England) 1997.
  • Townshend, P. Mankala in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Distributional Analysis . In: Azania: Journal of the British Institute in Eastern Africa 1979; 14: 108-138.