In another there were 4 men and 16 squares with a “sacred enclosure,” a square of the same size as the others, marked in the exact centre and bisected by one of the horizontal lines, which was known as the “sacred line.” From the incident in the game of a piece hemmed in on this line by a rival piece having to be pushed forward as a last resort, arose the phrase “to move the man from the sacred line” as synonymous with being hard pressed. In one form of the game as played by the Greeks there were 25 squares, and each player had 5 men which were probably moved along the lines. Plato ascribes the invention of the game of πεσσοί, or draughts, to Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus, and Homer represents Penelope’s suitors as playing it ( Odyss. An Egyptian vase also shows a lion and an antelope playing at draughts, with five men each, the lion making the winning move and seizing the bag or purse that contains the stakes. Though the game is not mentioned in the Complete Gamester, nor the Académie de jeux, and is styled a “modern invention” by Strutt, yet a somewhat similar game was known to the Egyptians, some of the pieces used having been found in tombs at least as old as 1600 B.C., and part of Anect Hat-Shepsa’s board and some of her men are to be seen in the Egyptian gallery of the British Museum.
The game is called Checkers in America, and is known to the French as Les Dames and to the Germans as Damenspiel. dragan, to draw), a game played with pieces (or “men”) called draughtsmen on a board marked in squares of two alternate colours.
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