RYONG-HPAI and KE-POUK-HPAI


Figure 20-B

Dominoes are used in Korea as in China in playing solitaire, which, as in China, is a favorite kind of solitaire, not regarded seriously, but often played at the beginning of the day, the player wishing for a happy omen.

The solitaire game described under the name of hoi táp [page 516] is known under the name of Ryong-hpai (Chinese, lung p'ai), "Dragon tablets," while another arrangement is shown in Figure 20.

[Page 526] In this system called ke-pouk-hpai (Chinese, kwai p'ái), "tortoise tablets," the 32 dominoes are laid face down to form a representation of a tortoise (Figure 21), with 2 pieces at head and tail and 2 for legs at each of the 4 corners.

Figure 21

The pieces at these extremities are turned face up, followed by those marked A, B, C, D, and mated according to the Korean system, (Plate 9). The player looses when he fails to mate all the pieces.

Plate 9

Last update January 31, 2010