Mancala, the National Game of Africa
by Stewart Culin
The visitor to the little Syrian colony in Washington street in New York City will often find two men intent upon this game. They call it Mancala. The implements are a board with two rows of cup-shaped depressions and a handful or so of pebbles or shells, which they transfer from one hole to another with much rapidity. A lad from Damascus described to me the methods of play.