Fighting Serpents

Fighting Serpents is a rough translation of "Kolowis Awithlaknannai", a game of the Zuni Indians of New Mexico. The game is a modification of the game Alquerque which was brought to the New World by the Spaniards. Boards for the game were found cut into the flat stone roofs of the Zuni houses, which were used as terraces. The game is played on a special board of three parallel horizontal lines intersected by a number of left and right leaning diagonals across the width of the board. At each end a line curves around joining each corner point to a point at the end of the middle line. Each player uses 23 pebbles or pottery fragments as pieces. The object is to capture all of the opponent's pieces. Captures are made by jumping, and more than one piece can be captured at a time. Capturing is compulsory. This game is similar to Alquerque, and Awithlaknannai, though the latter uses fewer spaces on the board.