Chapter XVII: The Malagasy Game of Fanòrona

BY W. MONTGOMERY.

Nobody can very long reside in Madagascar, or in the central parts of it at any rate, without occasionally observing little companies of the natives bending eagerly over some mathematical-looking diagram rudely scratched on a roadside stone, or on the top of a rock, or, more roughly still, on the sun-baked clay of the wayside. If you look a little at the figure of the diagram, and consider the multiplicity of squares, diagonals, and adjacent parallelograms involved in it, you may think the people are discussing some Malagasy rider to one or other of the propositions in the Second Book of Euclid. Take the trouble to ask, however, and you will find that they are simply playing at their national game, the _Fanòrona_.

The _fanòrona_ board is a rectangular parallelogram, divided into thirty-two equal spaces. Gather these, in your eye, into eight larger squares, containing four each; draw the diagonal lines in each of the eight, and the _fanòrona_ figure is complete. Forty-four movable pieces are required for the game--twenty-two on each side.

With the Malagasy these are usually little pebbles and potsherds, or beans and berries. We, however, will call them the Black and the White pieces. The two players sit opposite each other, having the long sides of the _fanòrona_ adjacent to them. The pieces are then arranged on the corners or angle-points; not on the squares, as in chess or draughts. There are five of these long lines on the board, each containing, of course, nine angle-points, and the pieces are thus arranged:

Black: First Line 1 .. .. 9
Second „ 1 .. .. 9
White: Fourth „ 1 .. .. 9
Fifth „ 1 .. .. 9

The third, or central line, is occupied by the eight remaining pieces, placed alternately, thus:

Black 1, 3, 6, 8
White 2, 4, 7, 9

One point remains unoccupied, the central angle-point of the board, the fifth of the third line. This represents the royal seat in the public gatherings, but in the _fanòrona_ game it is called the _foibeny_ (‘navel’).

The object aimed at by each of the players is, as in draughts, to remove the whole of the adversary’s pieces from the board. But much caution is required, for we shall see that a few pieces well posted may easily annihilate more than four times their number in weaker situations; and, as in real warfare, even the very numbers of a force may sometimes prove their ruin. A few examples here will show the various ways in which the game may be opened, the manner in which the pieces are moved, and the adverse pieces captured. Let us suppose that the pieces are all placed, as just described above (see diagram 1). For convenience of description let the five lines on which the pieces are posted be called respectively A, B, C, D, E, instead of first line, second line, third line, etc. Any one of these letters, then, with a numeral appended, will be an easy reference to the piece that is to be moved, or to the vacant point to which a piece has to be removed, or to a hostile piece that has to be captured and removed from the board (see diagram 2). Then remember:

Firstly, that a piece may be moved in any direction,--forward, backwards, sideways, or diagonally to the first station in that direction, if such station be vacant.

Secondly, if there be now no other vacant station between the attacking piece just moved and the enemy’s pieces along that line, these, whatever their number, are captured at once, as far as they stand in unbroken order on the line attacked. If, however, a vacant position occurs in their line, or another hostile piece is among them, then only the piece or pieces nearest the assailant are captured.

Thirdly, the pieces of the enemy may be captured by a retreat as well as by an advance. A piece that has been standing in a station adjoining to some piece or pieces of the enemy may capture it or them by retreating one point along that line, if such point happen to be vacant. The limitation defined immediately above applies in this case also.

Fourthly, at the beginning of a game one move only is permitted to the first side. After that side has moved once, any piece that is moved is permitted to run amuck in the enemy’s lines, and go on as long as he finds foes to capture, provided (_a_) that he does not return immediately to any point he has just left, and (_b_) he cannot take a foe behind him immediately after taking one in front of him, nor one on his right hand immediately after taking on his left hand, and _vice versâ_. ‘Don’t eat at both ends, like a leech,’ says the Malagasy proverb.

Let us suppose that White is going to move first at the commencement of a game. There is only one vacant point on the board into which he can move a piece, namely, the _foibeny_ or central point, which we may term C5, as it is the fifth point of the third line. There are four white pieces, any one of which may be moved into the vacant post, those on C4, D4, D5, D6. If he advances D5 to C5, then he immediately captures Black’s pieces on B5 and A5. Black may now retaliate by withdrawing his piece on B6 to A5, thereby capturing White’s pieces on C7, D8, E9. White may now, in any one of several ways, inflict a series of severe strokes on the unfortunate Black. Thus, for example:

D6, to C7, taking B8, A9; then
„ B6, „ A5;
„ B5, „ B4, B3, B2, B1.

Now the White piece must stop awhile, for although the Black piece at B7 is under his range, yet in taking it he would be transgressing the two laws mentioned above. He would have to return to B6, which he has just quitted, and he would be ‘eating at both ends like a leech,’ which is improper. But the Black piece on B7 may now very properly provide for his own safety and circumvent his assailant by advancing thus:

B7, to C7, taking D7, E7; then
„ D6, „ E5; then
„ D5, „ D4, D3, D2, D1; then
„ E5, „ C5, B5.

These moves are not given as examples of what the Malagasy would consider good play, but simply to show the _modus operandi_ of the game.

If the game happens to terminate in a ‘draw,’ which is frequently the case, then the combat may be recommenced on the same terms, the other side now taking the first move. Should one of the players have been defeated, however, he is not allowed to play on the same footing as before, for the game must be altered in a kind of mocking condescension to his weakness. The new form of the game is called _véla_; the one who has conquered is the _mpàmpihinam-béla_ (he who allows to graze at large). The defeated is _hómam-béla_ (a poor sheep not to be molested for awhile in his pasture-ground). The _véla_ game is opened by the vanquished, and the victor exposes such of his pieces as he chooses to surrender to his antagonist. These pieces may only be taken singly, and the generous conqueror refrains from taking any of his enemy’s pieces until he has parted with, one by one, seventeen of his own; then with the remaining five he begins his campaign against the undiminished forces of his antagonist. If he be a skilful player, however, he has managed meanwhile to occupy the fortress positions of the game, and the hosts of the enemy are probably huddled together in such situations that he will come down on them ‘like a wolf on the fold.’ If the _hómam-béla_ is again defeated he is only allowed to play the _véla_ form of the game until he has redeemed himself by a victory. Or he may choose to humiliate himself by openly confessing his inferiority, though, as one of my informants says, ‘few of the Malagasy are willing to do that.’ In ancient times grace was accorded to the beaten combatant on condition of his kneeling down before his conqueror and bleating like a sheep (_mibàrarèoka_), in confession of his weakness.

Here is a specimen of the _véla_ game, including the preliminary sacrificial moves by which Black gives up, one by one, the fated seventeen pieces. Then the time of reprisals comes, and the five survivors take the field, and give and take no quarter.

VÉLA GAME.

WHITE. BLACK.
1. C4 to C5 takes C6. 1. C3 to C4.
2. C5 „ C6 „ C4. 2. B4 „ C3.
3. D4 „ C5 „ B6. 3. A7 „ B6.
4. C5 „ B4 „ A3. 4. A8 „ A7.
5. D5 „ C5 „ B5. 5. A2 „ A3.
6. E5 „ D4 „ C3. 6. A9 „ A8.
7. C2 „ C3 „ C1. 7. A3 „ A2.
8. D2 „ C2 „ B2. 8. B1 „ B2.
9. B4 „ B5 „ B3. 9. A4 „ A3.
10. C3 „ B3 „ A3. 10. A2 „ A3.
11. D4 „ C3 „ B2. 11. A3 „ A2.
12. C2 „ B2 „ A2. 12. A8 „ A9.
13. B5 „ B4 „ B6. 13. A5 „ B6.
14. B4 „ B5 „ B6. 14. A7 „ B6.
15. B5 „ B4 „ B6. 15. B7 „ B6.
16. B4 „ B5 „ B6. 16. A9 „ A8.
17. C6 „ B6 „ A6. 17. Now begins Black’s attack.
B8 to A7 takes C9;
„ B7 „ C7, D7, E7.
18. D9 „ C9 „ B9. 18. C8 „ B8 takes D1, E8.
„ C7 „ D6;
„ D8 „ E9;
„ E7 „ C9;
„ D6 „ C5;
„ C6 „ E6;
19. B6 „ A6 „ C6. 19. B7 „ B6 „ B5;
20. A6 „ A7 „ A8. 20. B6 „ C5 „ A7;
„ C4 „ C3;
„ D4 „ E4;
„ C3 „ B2;
„ D2 „ E1;
„ C1 „ E3;
„ B1 „ D1;
„ B2 „ B3.
21. D3 „ C3. 21. A1 „ A2.
22. C3 „ D4 „ B2. 22. A2 „ A3.
23. E2 „ D2. 23. A3 „ B3.
24. D2 „ C1 and wins.