Contents

'Hounds & Jackals' Help Contents:  Version 1.0s

Please 'click' on the following topic to see version information.

Version Change Log:

Please 'click' on the following topic to learn about registering 'Hounds & Jackals'.

Please Consider Registering . . .

Please 'click' on the following topics to explore the game.

Prolog . . .

What is 'Hounds & Jackals'?

How do you play?

The equipment . . .

What are the rules?

You control the Dice . . .!

Please 'click'  on the following topics for other information.

Dogs in ancient Egypt . . .

What do the items on the menu do?

The H&J.INI file.

The 'Boss' keys.

MummyFacts? . . .

Tips, Tricks, and Trouble Shooting . . .

How to contact the author.

Credits (or where did all this stuff come from anyway?).

The images -- what are they?


Version
Version Change Log:

Version 1.0s -- Initial Release, November 1995.


Prolog
Prolog . . .

1252 B.C.  A courier delivers a papyrus scroll to the fortress commander.  It is a letter from Pharaoh Ramses II's royal scribe.  It reads*:

Panehys, royal scribe and overseer of the treasury, to Khaemope, commander of the fort  'Repeller of the Medjay':  In life, prosperity, and health!

This is a missive to inform you that I am calling upon all the gods of Pi-Ramessu-miamon, l.p.h., to keep you healthy and in the favor of Pharaoh, l.p.h., your good lord, daily.

A further matter: The One has commanded that you take the cursed game board, that vile gift of the Nubian sorcerer, into the desert and to bury it in the sands of a desolate place, as an evil thing never to be found again.  It is good if you take heed!

I am writing to inform the fortress commander Khaemope.

Farewell!

1995 A.D. at a small research camp located on the barren west edge of the Oasis of Dakhla, deep in the Western Desert, on what was the far western border of the ancient Egyptian empire. . .

It's morning and the rising sun has already begun to reveal the fury of last night's sand storm.  Isolated deep in the Western Desert for days, searching for elusive and rare desert plant species, you wonder at the things you do 'for Science' as you crawl and tumble out of your half-buried tent and begin the hated task of 'digging out'.   Stopping to clear the perspiration from your eyes, you rest against the shovel and squint at the harsh desert dunes and volcanic waste-land around you -- a scene beautiful at times, but often very deadly.  In your musings, out of the corner of your eye, you seem to catch a glint, an almost searing white gleam from the base of a distant dune.   "Hmm . . .???" . . . Dropping your shovel and taking a bearing, you decide to investigate . . .

. . . Upon nearing the site, you see the shining white surface of what appears to be an ancient game board.  Beautifully shaped hound and jackal peg playing pieces seem still set into the peg holes and the fineness of the intricate carving and the beautiful ivory playing surface bring a gasp to your lips.  "How wonderful!  . . . No, not Libyan . . . Surely it can't be Bedouin this far west . . . it has to ancient Egyptian!  . . . Where did it come from? . . . How? . . .", you rejoice as you stoop to examine more closely the artifact, preserved for what must have been centuries under the shifting sands.

Hisssss . . .ssssss..ssss..s!!!!  The cobra, black as death itself, slithers out from under the board.

But, at that very instance, Atum-Khepri, being Re himself, in the midst of his bark -- the sun-boat as it rises to illuminate the world -- sees your plight and your helplessness before the Nubian's sorcery and inspires you with an ancient protective spell . . .

"Oh Cobra -- Begone from me, for I am Mafdet!",

you chant, as you quickly retreat.  "Strange", you reflect, "An Egyptian spell?  Do I know of such magic? -- yet I know I recite the ancient spell against cobras . . .???"

Hisssssss . . .sssss. . . ssss!  . . .  then the Cobra's hiss begins to form into words . . .

and "I am Atum-Khepri, who gave jackals & hunting-dogs"

 . . .. Thunder?  Your world begins to spin . . .

"More speedily than a hound"

. . . Pounding echoes. . .  Time and space are fluid; rippling, spinning . . .

"More swiftly than a shadow"

. . . The cobra's hiss  . . .  a whirlpool?. . .

"Go forth to the happy place whereto we speed!"

. . .  No !!!!!!!! . . . May you save me, my lord, Re!

And Atum-Khepri hears your cry for help in the ancient words and is greatly angered because the Nubian has invoked his name in such an evil and vile spell.

"Hold!", He thunders.

"The evil Nubian sorcerer 's ancient trap shall not harm an innocent one such as this", he proclaims.

"Nor shall a game of joy of my people of long past be turned to a game of misery.  I shall balance the Cobra's powers and change the game from one of death, to one of life -- the loser shall not lose his life, nor the winner taste of undeserved power .

I shall not give you, I shall not give your charge, to a male or female robber from the West -- My hand upon you, my seal as your protection!   May you break forth!

Note:  Yes, I did fabricate the letter and story; but as authentically as I could.  The letter is crafted from those translated by Wente (see the 'Credits' section) and quite authentic in style; 'l.p.h.' represents an abbreviated way of writing 'Life, Prosperity, and Health!', Panehsy was, in fact, one of Ramses II's royal scribes; Khaemope was a captain of Seti II's royal garrison; Dakhla is a real oasis on the far western border of Egypt's ancient empire; 'Repeller of the Medjay' was a actual fort during the 12th Dynasty reign of Amenehat II; The spells are real! (see the 'What are the images?' section for more information); finally, Pi-Ramessu-miamon was Ramses II's treasure city and capital and probably, many think, built with Israelite slave labor.

Would a Nubian king send a cursed 'Hounds and Jackals' board to Pharaoh disguised as a gift?   Yes -- if you believe the ancient myths -- it *was* the kind of thing that they would do.


Whatis
What is 'Hounds & Jackals'?

An ancient ivory 'Hounds & Jackals' board and playing pieces as found in the tomb of Renseneb (dating from 1800 B.C.).

Board games were immensely popular game in ancient Egypt -- two of these, Senet and a game we can only refer to as 'The twenty squares game' were played from 3000 B.C. and are some of the oldest known games*.  But between the Ninth and Twelfth Dynasties ( 2100 - 1800 B.C.), another game, whose Egyptian name is lost in antiquity, begins to appear in the record and is known today by Egyptologists only as the 'Hounds & Jackals' game because of some of the boards use unique hound and jackal headed playing pieces.

'Hounds & Jackals' is a distinctively Egyptian game that appears to have spread from Egypt into surrounding areas controlled or influenced by the ancient Egyptian empire (boards have been found in Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Assyria).   It is also a very early example, and possibly the original form, of the 'Snakes and Ladders' game, and thus has particular appeal since these types of game are even today among the most popular games of chance.

The game is a race game between a team of five Jackals and a team of five Hounds (originally peg playing pieces) around a palm tree or oasis and along a peculiar shaped 'Track' (originally a series of peg holes in a playing board).   The object of the game being to get your five pieces around the track and onto the 'Shen' hieroglyph  -- which means 'encircling' or 'surrounding all that exists'**.   The game requires strategy in the face of whimsical chance, the chance coming from the throw of two knucklebones which were an ancient form of dice.

'Hounds & Jackals' is probably the most 'Egyptian' of games in the popular view and is readily recognized as 'Egyptian' by many, otherwise normal, people ;- )  This is no doubt because of the distinctive look of the game and also because Hollywood has immortalized it in its movies -- a good example being the charming sequence of a game between Seti and Nefertari about 34 minutes into 'The Ten Commandments'***.

'Hounds & Jackals' was played in Egypt for more than 2500 years.   Now it is here again in the present, re-created through the magic of electrons and phosphorus, for you to play.

Welcome to a game of the ancients -- Seti, Nefertari, Ramses the Great, and now you!

*'Hounds & Jackals' is the 3rd in a series of ancient Egyptian games for the Windows environment.  The first was Senet (v1.0r and v1.0s); the second being '20-Squares'  (v1.0r and v1.0s).  If you like 'Hounds and Jackals', or are interested in ancient Egypt, you should try the other two games also.  Senet (sometimes known as 30-Squares) was the most important board game of ancient Egypt and took on even religious over-tones; becoming a representation of the soul's journey through the under-world and eventual rest in the 'field of reeds' in the cosmic west.  '20-Squares' is an example of a game that seems to have 'invaded' Egypt from the outside and appears to be a form of the 'Royal Game of Ur'.   Both are excellent games, enjoyable and interesting to play.

** The Commentary of Faulkner's translation of the 'Book of the Dead' explains that the 'shen was ring-shaped with a flat base; it signified both cyclical eternity and protection.  The cartouche in which kings' (and rarely gods') names are placed is a specialized form of the shen.'

*** 34 minutes from the title screen, right after the memorable sequences where Moses saves the women (who later turns out to be his real mother) from being crushed between two massive stones as Seti's treasure city is being built and he (Moses) opens the temple grainaries to the starving Israelite slaves.  The 4 or 5 minute sequence begins with Seti saying 'There! -- my Jackals have your Hounds at Bay . . .' and ends with verbal venom between Nefertari and Ramses II.


Howdo
How do you play the game?

'Hounds & Jackals' is a simple 'snakes and ladders' game with both strategy and chance.   To learn the game, you need to know some things about the playing equipment (the board, the pieces, etc.) and something about the rules of the game.

These topics are discussed in some detail in the following two sections.   You can learn about the equipment, if you want to, right now by clicking on the jump text below:

The Equipment . . .

The rules are quite simple.   You can explore the rules of the game by clicking on the jump text below (I hate reading rules too, but you might want to read them just once).

Note: Actually, this computerized 'Hounds & Jackals' version automatically enforces all the rules, so it's really not necessary to memorize them; you just need to be generally familiar with them so that you can understand why the game does what it does.

What are the rules?

When you start a game, the Hound and Jackal playing pieces sit clustered around the red-granite pyramid.  You move a piece on the board by 'dragging and dropping' it.   Just 'click' on the piece you want to move, and holding the mouse button down, 'drag' it where you want to move it.    Because the computer knows exactly where the piece you are moving can move, you really don't have to drag it very far -- the computer will complete your move for you.  (I realize that you are perfectly capable of counting the proper number of squares to move, but children may not be -- and 'Hounds & Jackals' is a game for kids too).   Actually, if you want to save time, you will find that simply clicking on the piece is enough to activate the 'drag and drop' logic and allow the computer to complete the move for you.

'Hounds & Jackals' knows which of your pieces can be moved at any given time and will 'inactivate' (in other words, freeze in-place) any of your pieces that cannot be moved.   So if you find yourself trying to move a piece, but the computer simply doesn't respond to your efforts, check out the situation.  You'll invariably find that the piece you are trying to move cannot be moved according to 'Hounds & Jackals' rules.   By the same token, the computer knows when you have no move available to you and in this case, according to the rules, the turn passes to your opponent (unless, of course you, have extra turns coming).

When a piece lands exactly on the 'Shen' amulet, it is able to move off the board and will do so automatically.

Remember that who moves first in a game is that person who throws a 1 or 6 first.  Deciding this 'First mover' can be can be kind of frustrating.   To eliminate this frustration, anytime a new game begins, 'Hounds & Jackals' will 'Demon-Cast' until someone, Hounds or Jackals, is able to move a piece on the race track.   By Demon-Cast we mean an automated way (entirely fair, by the way) of determining the next mover (The term Demon Cast is taken from the term 'Demon'-Dialer, a tool hackers use to search quickly and automatically for access numbers into networks).

Each player must throw a 1 or a 6 before he or she can enter a piece in the race.  This can be frustrating -- you'll need to use your 1 and 6 throws wisely and take every opportunity to get your pieces on the race track.

Get all of your pieces through the race course and onto the 'Shen' amulet before your opponent, and you are the winner!  The average 'Hounds & Jackals' game will only take 5 to 8 minutes, so it's not a long process at all.  Make sure you run the 'Tutorial' menu option if any of this confuses you.   Don't be afraid to experiment -- The game isn't breakable (at least its not supposed to be).

I hope you enjoy your electronic 'Hounds & Jackals' game.   It may not have the 'pizzazz' of a modern arcade game nor the intellectual challenge of a strategy game like 'Chess', BUT 'Hounds & Jackals' WAS played and enjoyed for 2000 years by millions of Egyptians -- there must be something to it.


Whatdo
What do the items on the menu do?

The menu items of 'Hounds & Jackals' are very simple.   The top-level menu consists of only three real menu items.   See below::

'Options' allow you to control the game:

Help has three sub-menu options:  'Tutorial' lets you re-run the tutorial on 'Hounds & Jackals' whenever you wish, 'How do you play' lets you access the help file you're reading now, and 'About' lets you view the program copyright statements.

 'Exit', of course, lets you leave the game.    'Exit' is the 'normal' method of leaving the game -- two others, the space bar and the 'Esc' key, act as Boss Keys for emergency shutdown of the game.  The area on the menu to the right of the 'Exit' item is the game feedback area.  This area offers instructions, comments, and advice as the game progresses.

The Options sub-menu items are as below:

The first section of this sub-menu allows you to control some basic options of the game -- do you want game sounds?, do you want background music?, and do you want MummyFacts, from time to time, to pop-up in the lower right of the screen.   MummyFacts are interesting facts about ancient Egypt that will pop-up every couple of minutes or so if this option is checked.   The 'Ladders too?' option is there so that you can play 'Hounds & Jackals' either with both ladders and snakes active, or just snakes (Some believe that the ancient Egyptians did not have ladders in their play of the game).   Either way makes for an exciting game!

The 2nd section of this sub-menu lets you play the game on manual mode (play a friend, or play against yourself) or, more commonly, against the computer.  If 'Play the Evil Sorcerer' is checked, you are playing against the computer.   The computer always takes the current turn and piece type if this option is checked during a game in progress.  In other words, if it's Jackal's turn to move at the time this option is checked, then the computer will play the Jackals and vice versa (note: Upon New-Game, or startup, Jackals have the first turn at the bones, but after a game has been won, the loser has the first turn).  You can always click the 'SwitchSides' option anytime to turn the tables on the computer and play the other side -- of course the 'SwitchSides' option is only active when your playing against the sorcerer rather than yourself or a friend.

Clicking the 'New game?' sub-menu option immediately resets the board and starts a new game.

The 'Game Sounds?' option really consist of two sub-options as at left.  You can choose to suppress the dog sounds (This option was suggested by my wife who got very tired of hearing the dogs barking all the time as I tested), or even suppress all game sounds.    If you want no game sounds at all, then naturally you would 'un-check' both of these options and the game will be silent (unless you've got the MIDI background music going).

Note:   WAV sound file vs. MIDI sound file volume can be a problem.  I've tried to set the relative volumes between the MIDI files and the WAV files at a good spot.  Because of the maddening difference between the many sound cards out in the world, this might not be right for everyone.  If you find your Music too loud compared to the Game Sounds, or the Game Sounds too loud compared to the music, look for and use your 'Mixer' application (it came with your sound card for sure), before playing or even during play of 20-Squares, to adjust the relative volumes.


INIfile
The H&J.INI file.

'Hounds & Jackals' uses the information in the H&J.INI file in the Windows directory to record information for start-up.   This is the only file that 'Hounds & Jackals' creates automatically on your system.  If you ever want to delete 'Hounds & Jackals' from your system, you should also delete H&J.INI in addition to the files in your H&J directory.

Of course, I'd think twice about deleting the enchanted board from my system.  What could be worse than having an evil Nubian sorcerer, The Sun God, and two packs of dogs after you?   ; - )


BossKey
The 'Boss' Keys

I am sensitive to the fact that you might want to play 'Hounds & Jackals' in private at times.

To that end if you hit the 'Space Bar' or the 'Esc' anytime during play, 'Hounds & Jackals' will instantly end and clear itself from the screen.


Contact
How to contact the author.

If you have comments or suggestions, you can contact me by:

Internet:  74212.1123@compuserve.com

or

CompuServe E-Mail:  74212,1123

or by letter to:

P. S. Neeley
248 W. 3325 N.
North Ogden, UT 84414


Credits
Credits (or where did all this stuff come from anyway?).

'Hounds & Jackals' was written in Microsoft's Visual Basic for Windows 3.0.

A very special thanks to Professor John Tait, the Edwards Professor of Egyptology at the Dept. of Egyptology, University College London, and the world's authority on 'Hounds & Jackals' and other Egyptian games.   Professor Tait, though very busy, kindly took the time to help a 'crazy American' produce an authentic and accurate game.

Thanks also to Karin Sowada for her continuing support.

In addition much background information, the raw materials for the images, and all of the MummyFacts, came from the following sources (all 'mined' at the local Library):

"SENET -- Play Games with the Pharaohs"  by William Bown, New Scientist, December 1990.

"Intelligence Games" by Franco Agostini and Nicola Alberto DeCarlo.

"The World of GAMES -- Their origin, How to play them, and How to make them" by Jack Botermans et al, Facts On File, New York.

"The Treasures of Tutankhamun" by I. E. S. Edwards, The Viking Press, New York.

"The Complete Tutankhamun" by Nicholas Reeves. Thames and Hudson 1990.

"Into the Mummy's Tomb" by Nicholas Reeves.  Madison Press Books, 1992.

"Ramses II: The Pharaoh and His Time", Exhibition Catalog, Brigham Young University, 1986.

"Ancient Egyptians" by Pierre Miquel, Librairie Hachette, 1979.

"The Egyptians" by Anne Millard.  Silver Burdett Company, 1985.

"Ancient Egypt" by Rosalie and Antony E. David.  Warwick Press, 1984.

"Sacred Architecture" by A. T. Mann.  Element Inc., 1993.

"All Color Book of Egyptian Mythology" by Richard Patrick.  Octopus Books Ltd., 1972.

"Mummies -- Death and Life in Ancient Egypt" by James Hamilton-Paterson and Carol Andrews.  Penguin Books, 1979.

"Fun with Hieroglyphs" by Catharine Roehrig, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Viking, 1990.

"Mummies" by Susanne Lord, The Trumpet Club, 1991.

"Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure --- Secrets of Ancient Egypt" by Lila Perl, Clarion Books, 1987.

"Gods & Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology" by Geraldine Harris, The World Mythology Series, Peter Bedrick Books, 1993.

"The Age of God-Kings -- TimeFrame 3000-1500 B.C.", Time-Life Books, 1987.

"Ancient Egypt" by Lionel Casson, Time-Life Books, 1965.

"The Egyptian Book Of The Dead -- The Book Of Going Forth By Day" translated by Raymond Faulkner, Chronicle Books, 1994.

"Letters from Ancient Egypt" by Edward Wente, Scholars Press, 1990.

"Voices from Ancient Egypt -- An Anthology of Middle Kingdom Writings" by R. B. Parkinson, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

"The Pyramids of Egypt" by I. E. S. Edwards, The Viking Press, New York, 1972.

In addition, Professor Tait noted that the following two references are very good  and accessible to the general reader:

"The Tomb of Tutankhamen" by Howard Carter, Barrie and Jenkins, 1954 and later.

"Tutankhamen: Life and Death of a Pharaoh" by Christiane Desroche, Nobelcourt (numerous editions).

All these good people and books have been my 'teachers of things Egyptian' --  I have tried to learn well.   Any errors are, of course, my own.

Beauty and Art were breathed into this game through superlative tools --  my Microtek-II HR scanner, Adobe Photoshop 3.0, Adobe Illustrator 4.0, Kai Power Tools 2.0, Andromeda series II filters, Paint Shop Pro v3.0, and VistaPro 3.1.  Some extremely smart people made these tools to empower the 'artistically challenged' of the world (like me) to create something worthwhile in spite of 'handicaps'.

All of the icons used here (some of which were subsequently converted to BMP files) were created using IconWorks  -- an application furnished with Visual Basic.

This Help file was written with the aid of Craig Villalon's shareware help authoring system -- VB Automatic Help Author v.1.32 .

A number of the game sounds in this game are greatly shortened and modified versions of sound files found on Interactive's "1000 of the World's Greatest Sound Effects" CD-ROM.   The rest of the sounds were recorded using the Microsoft Windows Sound Recorder Applet and my trusty Radio Shack microphone.

Some of the background music clips are mixed and shortened WAV files from BeachWare Inc.'s Music Tracks CD.

H&J.MID, the Midi background music, was created from a piece of MIDI music that came with my Gravis UltraSound sound card using MIDI Soft's software -- 'Recording Session'.

The knowledge and interest in Mathematics and programming is due to my father Pat's influence and the fine education I received from the many Math and Science teachers and professors who taught so very well (obligating a debt I can never repay).

The time to complete this programming project was largely 'stolen' during the late evening and wee morning hours when more normal people would be asleep.  However, inevitably, some of the time was donated by my wife, Barbara and my children, Jon, Melissa, Christie, Patrick, Nick, and James.

Some day they may come to understand that while other fathers were tinkering with the family car, mowing the lawn, doing woodwork in the garage, etc. -- tending to normal business -- their father, high in the dark castle tower, and bathed in the soft glow of the electron's fire, was practicing modern-day sorcery.  For he was building something that would never really grow old and decay, that could be copied exactly many times with almost no effort, that could be used and enjoyed by many, many people at the same time, and that could be scattered on the electronic winds to the ends of the Earth.  Yet, this something was made out of nothing but an idea, diagrams in the air, and glowing bits of phosphorus.   Can there be anything more magic than that?


Images
The images -- what are they?

The images used in this game are as follows:

The Splash screen image is made of a picture of a Great Dane (the 'Hound') , the head of the Anubis Guardian Statue of Tutankhamen's tomb (the 'Jackal'), and a Cobra -- Yup, a mean one -- against a sand dune backdrop.  The 'Great Dane' and the 'Anubis' images are also the playing pieces.

The rippling, melting, whirlpool effect is a series of transitions created with PhotoShop's Zig-Zag filter.

The spells uttered in this sequence are authentic and have their source as the following:

"Oh Cobra -- Begone from me, for I am Mafdet!" is part of the real spell against cobras as found in Chapter 33 of the Theban Recension (per Faulkner).  The complete spell is:  'O cobra, I am the flame which shines on the brows of the Chaos-gods of the Standard of Years.  Begone from me, for I am Mafdet!'*

"I am Atum-Khepri, who gave jackals & hunting-dogs"
"More speedily than a hound"
"More swiftly than a shadow",
"Go forth to the happy place whereto we speed!"

is not a real spell but uses phrases taken directly from Chapter 24 and 30B of The Papyrus of Ani (per Faulkner).

'May you save me, my lord, Re!' comes from a Middle Kingdom protective spell for guarding a child from a night demon (per Parkinson).

'I shall not give you, I shall not give your charge, to a male or female robber from the West -- My hand upon you, my seal as your protection!   May you break forth!'**  comes from the same Middle Kingdom protective spell against a night demon as above and are, in fact, the words to be spoken by Re.

The beautiful 3-D playing board was created using VistaPro v3.1 (a wonderful, affordable, 3D fractal landscape rendering program) to create the oasis pool, the palm trees and the red-granite pyramid, then PhotoShop was used to add the dunes, the golden playing positions, the 'snakes', the 'Shen' amulet (properly oriented using Andromeda's 3D filter), and lay down the shadows.

The images of the knucklebones are real but painted blue so as to appear to be of lapis lazuli.  They are images of a pair of  ivory knucklebones found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

The 'Helped by Atum-Re' screen is a complex image created with PhotoShop and KPT's gradients on path's.   In the background is a translucent image of a portion of Tutankhamun's death mask (representing the God Atum-Re), in the middle is an image created from the board set-up and VistaPro of the red granite pyramid seen from behind and almost in its shadow.  In the foreground is an image crafted from that shown in The Papyrus of Ani, plate 10, showing Atum-Re*** in his sun boat.

'The evil sorcerer has won' screen shows an image of the evil Nubian sorcerer peering through a translucent snakeskin from the nether world, a dark world of black magic.  If you look closely you will see the faint image of a common Middle and New Kingdom magical amulet -- The hand and crocodile seal stone -- that provided protection against demons.  In this case, it is protecting you from the sorcerer's evil power.  Photoshop was used with a couple of stock images and a snakeskin texture in a texture channel to create the effect.

The 'Winning Celebration' screen shows the face of Re revealed by a solar eclipse.  This image may seem too dark for a happy, celebration screen, but the thought was: 'how else could one see the face of Re except during a total solar eclipse?'.  The image was made from an image of Tutankhamun's death mask, a greatly magnified image of a portion of the Great Nebula in Orion as backlighting, and the image of the sun's corona during a total eclipse.

The 'farewell' screen is an image of a statue of Khafre, builder of the second great pyramid at Giza, and son of Khufu (Cheops) builder of the great pyramid.  The falcon image of Horus spreads its wings around him in protection. (The original Fourth Dynasty diorite statue stands in the Egyptian National Museum at Cairo).

A random stanza from a set of thirty is displayed upon exiting the game.****  The stanza's are from two sources:  Those beginning ' I was . . . ' are from the stela of Intef (See Parkinson, pp. 61-63), those beginning 'How great is the . . . ' are from a hymn to Senwosret III (See Parkinson, pp. 56-47).  The words of the ancient Egyptians, though much less famous than their monuments, are inherently more lasting.   Even the Egyptians knew this.  Consider the words below from a  19th Dynasty papyrus on the endurance of writing (for the complete text, see Parkinson pp. 148-150).

But, should you do these things, you are wise in writings.
As for those scribes and sages
from the time which came after the gods
-- those who would foresee what was to come, which
    happened --
their names endure for eternity,
although they are gone, although they completed their
    lifetimes and all their people are forgotten.

They did not make pyramids of bronze,
with stelae of iron.
They recognised not how heirs last as children,
with [offspring] pronouncing their names;
they made for themselves heirs
as writings and the Teachings they made.

They appointed [for themselves] the book as the lector-priest,
the writing board as Beloved-Son,
the Teachings as their pyramids,
the pen as their baby,
the stone-surface as wife.
From the great to the small
are given to be his children:
the scribe, he is their head.

* Note:  Mafdet was a protective goddess, killer of snakes, in the form of a civet or ocelot.

** Note:  The words 'May you break forth!' mean, as found in other spells, 'You shall break out' of the spell.

*** Note:  Atum-Khepri, the early morning from of Re, would normally be shown as a scarab beetle.  The image you see here is of Atum-Re, which was Re's evening form.

**** Note:  There is a term displayed in one of the Stanzas -- . . . lo, he is Sekhmet, against his enemies . . -- that may not be understood.  Parkinson, p. 153, explains that Sekhmet is "the lioness goddess, a fierce solar diety, the protectress of the world and lady of plague.  In her benevolent aspect she is associated with Hathor."


Rules
What are the rules?

No rules for 'Hounds & Jackals' have survived on papyri or wall paintings.  The situation is further complicated by the fact that Egyptian art showed people and objects only from their most typical view -- 'head-on' or profile -- this leaves few clues as to how the game was played in paintings of games in progress.  The following are the rules of 'Hounds & Jackals' as given by W. J. Tait in a private communication, May 1995*.   Professor Tait is the Edwards Professor of Egyptology at the Dept. of Egyptology, University College London, and is a world authority on Senet, 20-Squares, 'Hounds & Jackals', and other Egyptian board games and equipment.

The starting position . . .

All pieces start off the tracks.

How you win . . .

The object is to take all 5 pieces, in turn, off the track by landing them precisely on the 'Shen' hieroglyph.   Once successfully taken off, a piece plays no further part in the game.

Taking turns . . .

The players throw once each alternately, and move a single piece by the appropriate number of positions.  A move must be made, and made in full; if no move is possible, and no extra turns (throws of the Knucklebones) have accrued, then the turn is forfeit (passes to the other player).

Starting the game . . .

A player must throw a 1 or a 6 before being permitted to move a piece onto the race track.

Moving pieces . . .

Each team, Jackals and Hounds, has a separate path to the 'Shen' ending -- Jackals take the upper path, Hounds the lower.

Pieces may not move backwards (unless automatically backwards when caught in the mouth of a snake), only forwards.  Pieces may leap freely over each other.

Only one piece may stand on any one position at any given time.

Snakes and Ladders . . .

A player landing (exactly) on the head of a snake must move his or her piece along the snake path backwards if the back end of the 'snake' is not blocked by a piece.  If it is blocked, then you are in luck, and the snake will not appear to scare you.

If the 'Ladders too? option is checked, a player landing (exactly) on the tail of a snake (a ladder) must move his or her piece along the snake path forwards if the head of the 'snake' is not blocked by a piece**.   If it is blocked, then you are 'out of luck' and Re cannot appear in his sun boat to give you a ride.

Extra turns . . .

A player landing on one of the specially marked positions gains an extra turn.

There is no limit to the number of extra turns that may accrue due to a move, but a player must exhaust all accrued moves before the turn passes to the opponent (sorry, you cannot save accrued 'rolls of the bones' for a 'rainy day').

*Note:  Professor Tait notes that the above set of rules are a plausible, but not the only possible, set of rules.   There may well have been variations in practice.

**Note: Professor Tait notes that in his opinion, there were no 'ladders' in 'Hounds & Jackals' as played by the ancient Egyptians, only snakes -- although others may disagree.   An option -- 'Ladders too?' has been included in the options menu (and is the default).  If you want to play with only snakes, then un-check this option.  Either way makes for an exciting game.


Equipment
The Equipment . . .

The equipment for 'Hounds & Jackals' is very simple:

There are 5 Hound and 5 Jackal playing pieces.  The game is a race between these two packs of Hounds and Jackals.

The board that these pieces race around is very curious.  It consists of an upper path, which the Jackals take (green above) , and a lower path, which the Hounds take (red above).   Each path is made up of 29 gold balls (or buttons).  At the end of each path is a shared finish-line -- an ancient 'Shen' amulet.

The object being to race all of your pieces to land exactly on this 'Shen' amulet.

There are 3 special positions that, when landed on, reward you with an extra turn.  They are the 'Shen' amulet itself, and two others, marked on the board with a double cross sign,  for each path (as marked with ovals as above).   There are also two snakes (or ladders) on each path.   See them above?  Land on the lower end of each and it becomes a ladder (if you have the 'Ladders too?' option turned on in the Options menu), land on the upper-end and you've awakened a snake who chases you to the less favorable end.

Each side starts with their pieces lined up around the red-granite pyramid, enters each piece according to the throw of the 'dice', and races like the wind for the 'Shen' amulet.

Two Knucklebones serve as 'dice' -- in fact, these *are* the ancient form of dice.  Unfortunately, they have no markings that would give us a clue as to exactly how a given throw should be scored.   There a four distinct surfaces to each knucklebone however -- two wider and two narrower ones.  The scoring scheme below is designed to, as closely as possible, mimic the scoring that would be yielded by the throwing of four casting sticks, an alternate form of ancient dice:

2 --  'Top', You can advance 2 positions.

3 -- 'Bottom', You can advance 3 positions

0 -- 'Side',  worth -0-

0 -- 'Side', worth -0-

The 'score' of a given throw is the sum of the values of the two bones subject to the following rule:

The minimum throw value is one.   Thus two 'Sides' would be worth not 0 + 0 = 0 but 1.

Thus a 'Top' + a 'Bottom' would be worth 2 + 3 = 5, two 'Tops' would be worth 2 + 2 = 4, a 'Side' and a 'Bottom' would be worth 0 + 3 = 3, and two 'Sides' would be worth 0 + 0 = 0 --> 1, etc.

You can easily learn to score the 'bones' by sight, but to make things easier, the value of the throws will show on the side of the red-granite pyramid -- in Egyptian!    Don't worry, don't worry . . .  You will immediately recognize the numbers.  The insights below on knucklebone scoring are quoted right from W. J. Tait's 'Game-boxes and Accessories from the Tomb of Tutankhamun', Oxford Press, 1982, pages 48 & 49:

The Tutankhamun knuckle-bones, like ancient Egyptian examples in general, are not real animal-bones, but stylized reproductions, carved from ivory (with the exception of the pair (585v) made of resin).  They are of a standard pattern, which can readily be appreciated from Plates VIII, X, XVI.  It may be pointed out that the two 'sides' are clearly distinguished, one by having a concave form, the other by having two distinct raised ridges.  The resin pair are slightly different in this respect, one side being concave, while the other has a single raised ridge.

Thus the knuckle-bones have four sides, all distinguishable, that may come to rest uppermost.   In the classical world these generally received the scores 1,3,4, and 6.   When a pair of knuckle-bones is thrown, they can come to rest in sixteen different ways.  Some of these throws will be indistinguishable unless the two knuckle-bones are themselves made to be told apart, which is plainly not the case with the Tutankhamun pairs, nor with ancient knuckle-bones in general.  In effect, ten different scoring throws are possible.  If the scores 1,3,4, and 6 were adopted for the four sides, then a throw of 1+ 6 would amount to the same as a throw of 3 + 4, and nine different scores from 2 to 12 would result.  However, any numerical value could be assigned arbitrarily to the various throws (a lowest score of 1 is perfectly conceivable) and ten is merely the maximum number of different scores possible -- the same value could be assigned to two or more different throws.  Consideration of the history of gaming in general suggests that it is not possible to judge this matter 'a priori'.  Some games at some periods have required the player to memorize an elaborate series of possible scores, while others have recognized only a few.

. . . Without entering into further speculation as to how the throws were reckoned, it can a least be seen that there is no insuperable obstacle to supposing that knuckle-bones and casting sticks might in practice be used to play the same game or games.  A parallel is provided by the traditional Indian game usually referred to as Pachisi, which might be played with six cowrie shells, or with three long dice (in the latter case, the game is generally known in the western literature as Chausar).  The method of counting the scores varies considerably.  The shells and the dice cannot give precisely the same system of scoring.

. . . Cubic dice similar to the modern kind, with six sides marked by spots to indicate scores from 1 to 6, are now generally accepted not to have occurred in Egypt until the Graeco-Roman period.  Unfortunately it so happens that all the possibly earlier examples of dice or dice-like objects cannot be dated with certainty.  It would for example be of great interest if it were possible to be confident of the New-Kingdom date of the die found at Deir el-Medina, the sides of which are marked with the scores 1 (this occurs on two separate faces), 4, 6, 8, 9.


MummyFacts
MummyFacts? . . .

If the 'MummyFacts?' menu item is checked, every 2 or 3 minutes, interesting facts about ancient Egypt will appear over the red-granite pyramid area of the game screen.   All these 'facts' were mined from the references noted in the 'Credits' section of this help file.  They only appear during a game while waiting for someone to roll the knuckle bones, and they will disappear as soon as the 'bones' are rolled.  Stop and read them once in a while.

These facts are intended to educate as well as entertain -- few people really know much about ancient Egypt, beyond mummies and pyramids, even though the knowledge may be readily available at the local library.   If you grow tired of this feature, simply un-check the 'MummyFacts?' menu item and they will no longer bother you.

Note:  MummyFacts beginning with 'BD:' are quoted directly from "The Egyptian Book Of The Dead" as translated by Faulkner.


Dice
You control the Dice . . . !

You actually have full control over the Knuckle Bones.  But we had to provide that capability for you.  Let me explain:

'Hounds & Jackals' uses a random number generator to obtain 'random' throws of the Knuckle Bones.  Random number generators use a 'seed' number to get them started and then a complicated algorithm to generate a sequence of random numbers.   These are often called 'pseudo-random' numbers because given the seed number, the same sequence of 'random' numbers will always be generated.   Also, the algorithm eventually loops back on itself so that you'll start-over generating the same numbers in the same sequence again at some point.   This is called the 'period' of the random number generating algorithm .   A typical period may be in the 40,000 range, so you have to go through a lot of random numbers before you loop back on yourself.

Okay, sorry about the dry, overly complicated explanation above, but here's why we went through it:

'Hounds & Jackals' uses a random seed number.   In other words, each time you start up 'Hounds & Jackals', it uses a random seed number to 'seed' the algorithm, and thus you should never really notice the same sequence of throws -- unless you watch and correlate for a long, long time.

This means that the sequence of throws generated from 'Hounds & Jackals' is as random as possible.

Now I personally believe that one random number is as good as the next, but you may not.   You may be uncomfortable with just accepting the next 'random' throw that 'Hounds & Jackals' generates as YOUR throw.  After all, you are the thrower of the dice, right?   'Hounds & Jackals' has been programmed so that if you hold the mouse button down over the dice, they 'roll' and 'rattle' in your hands (you'll be able to hear them if you have a sound card) for as long as you hold the mouse button down.   All during this 'rolling' process, 'Hounds & Jackals' is going through the next, and the next, and the next, etc., etc., random numbers at the clip of 150 per second or more (depending on your processor).   When you release the mouse button, 'Hounds & Jackals' uses the random number from wherever it stopped in the 'rolling' process as the throw amount.

Bottom line:  You actually have as much control over the 'bones' as you would in real life.

If you are blessed with ESP, or are just an extremely lucky person, you can really make a killing here because if you release at just the right millisecond you'll have the 6, or the 4, or whatever it was you wanted.   So if you don't trust the 'Hounds & Jackals' program, or don't want to just accept the next random number 'Hounds & Jackals' happens upon, roll those 'bones' before you throw.


Tips
Tips, Tricks, and Trouble Shooting . . .

I don’t want to go through the ‘The evil Nubian sorcerer is sucking me into the whirlpool’ prolog screen anymore . . .

If you click on the prolog screen when it first comes up (or anytime really) you will quit the prolog and go right to the game.

I don’t want to wait 5 seconds for the ‘farewell’ screen to disappear . . .

Sheesh!  Its only 5 seconds!   Okay, Okay.  If you click on the ‘farewell’ screen it will immediately disappear and you will be out  -- finished as it were.

I can’t get the MummyFacts to show up . . .

First, make sure you have the MummyFacts menu option checked, otherwise you won’t get any MummyFacts.

However, If you find that the MummyFacts menu option is ‘grayed-out’ then that’s another matter.  This means that 'Hounds & Jackals' could not find the MUMFACT3.TXT file that holds all of the MummmyFacts.   The most likely cause of this is that MUMFACT3.TXT is not in the working directory, and let me tell you from personal experience, it’s very easy in Windows to get yourself mixed up as to what the working directory is.   Here’s how you make sure that 'Hounds & Jackals' is never mixed up about it.

1st:   Activate the 'Hounds & Jackals' icon by clicking on it once from Program Manager (This will highlight its title).

2nd:  Choose ‘File|Properties’ from the Program Manager menu and make sure the Properties box for the 'Hounds & Jackal' icon reads:

Command Line:  	H&J.exe

Working Directory:  	C:\RH&J        (or whatever is your directory)

3rd:  Make sure that MUMFACT3.TXT exists in the C:\RH&J directory.

Do these three things, and everything should work fine.

I can’t get any MIDI music to play . . .

You have to have a sound card that supports MIDI 'Extended' format  to get the music to play --  99.9% of them do.

First, make sure you have the 'MIDI background music?' menu option checked, otherwise you won’t get any MIDI music.

Next, make sure it isn’t a simple volume problem.   Turn-up the volume on the speakers and see it that helps at all.

Didn't help?  Okay then maybe the relative sound volumes of the WAV and MIDI files are 'out of whack'.  I've tried to set the relative volumes between the MIDI file and the WAV files at a good spot.  Because of the maddening difference between the many sound cards out in the world, this might not be right for everyone.  Look for and adjust your 'Mixer' application ( it came with your sound card for sure), to adjust the relative volume of MIDI files upward a little to see if that helps.

Still not working?   Dang!  This calls for drastic measures.   I hate to inform you of this, BUT, you are most likely suffering from what the MIDI people call ‘The MIDI problem from Hell!' (their words, not mine).   Not to worry  though -- here's what to do:

Since H&J.MID is in extended MIDI format you have to make sure that channels 1 - 10 are active.   Go to the Windows Control Panel, MIDI mapper section, and choose edit on your MIDI mapper.  Then make sure that channels 1 through 10 are active.   If one of these channels (that hold the extended MIDI sequences) is not active, then you are essentially mapping that sequence into 'oblivion'.


Register
Please consider registering . . .

Please consider registering.   'Hounds & Jackals' is not freeware, it's shareware; even though it is not 'hobbled' in any way, nor are there pesky 'nag' screens to bother you.

If you want to continue to legally use this software, you must register this program after 21 days.    To register, send $15 to:

P. S. Neeley
248 W. 3325 N.
North Ogden, UT 84414

The shareware version of 'Hounds & Jackals' was meant to be distributed on the 'electronic winds' of the Internet, BBSs, on-line services, etc., and so it was important to keep the file sizes as small as possible.   In a practical sense, you do this by cutting back on color depth (16 color images instead of  256 color images) and eliminating as many game sound files as possible (.WAV files are large and not very compressible).   I hated to do this but it was the only way.

However, extra bytes add nothing to the weight of a diskette.

I will send registered users of 'Hounds & Jackals' the 256 color, registered version in the mail.   The 16 color images you see in this shareware version are good, but the 256 color images of the registered version are breathtakingly beautiful.   The registered version also features lots more sounds and many more MummyFacts.

If you enjoy 'Hounds & Jackals' at all, or love things 'Egyptian',  you'll want the registered version.


Dogs
Dogs in ancient Egypt . . .

Since 'Hounds & Jackals' is a dog race game, you might be wondering about dogs in ancient Egypt.  Here are three excerpts to help . . .

From 'The Reader’s Digest Illustrated Book of Dogs', 2nd revised edition, 1993.

Around 4500 B.C. the Egyptians worshipped another god that had the form of a dog.  Set, the god of evil, was represented as a greyhound with erect ears and a forked tail.   Thus it has been suggested that Egypt is the home of the modern English Greyhound, whose ancestors may have come from Mesopotamia, but more probably from Ethiopia.   In the tomb of a certain Pti (circa 2600 B.C.) we can see a representation of a dog of this type.  The greyhound is yellowish, has erect ears, and is engaged in hunting.

. . .  The stele of Antef II (circa 2000 B.C.) forms, in a sense, the first list of breeds of dogs.  By the side of the Pharaoh we see two greyhounds and a dog which might equally well be an Australian Dingo or German Shepherd.  Above these there is a long-loined dog, possibly an ancestor of the Dachshund and the Basset Hound.

At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom (circa 2050 B.C.) Egyptians crossed greyhounds with bloodhounds, producing greyhounds with dropping ears.

. . . Then, around 1800 B.C., Aryan hordes from what is now Syria established themselves in Egypt.   They brought with them mastiffs and greyhounds that resembled Salukis.  Both these breeds remained in Egypt after their masters had been expelled and were doubtless used for warfare.   Ancient depictions show Tutankhamun, pursuing Nubians, accompanied by mastiffs wearing collars bristling with iron spikes.

. . .  Egyptian hieroglyphics dating from 3000 B.C. seem to depict dogs similar to the Great Dane.  Some canine experts claim that Phoenician traders spread the mastiffs throughout the Mediterranean.  The Germans, however, believe that invading Roman legions brought the forerunner of the Great Dane to their country in the first century.

From 'Ancient Egyptians' by Pierre Miquel

. . . One of the most popular breeds was a kind of greyhound, ancestor of the modern Saluki.   Standing on long legs, it had a long, hairy tail, and elongated snout, and floppy ears.   There was also another breed of dog, which was short-haired and had long, pointed ears, which stood straight up.   It is possible that Anubis, the jackal god, was a representation of these dogs.   Both breeds had narrow chests, and tails which curled up.  Some mummies of smaller species of greyhound, call ‘ketket’, have been found in the tombs of women, accompanied by mummified dwarfs.   The princes considered these animals most prestigious and dressed them in gold leather collars decorated with flowers.   They gave them such names as ‘White Gazelle’ or ‘Master’ to show their pride in possessing such fine animals.

Another type of dog, doubtlessly introduced by the Hyksos. resembled our modern mastiff.

A modern but rare breed, which came from the Balearic Islands and was called ‘dog of the Pharaohs’, was used about a century ago in Spain for hunting wolves.   It was called ‘podenco ibicenco’, and must have been introduced on the little island of Ibiza by Phoenicians.   This long slender dog with powerful jaws strongly resembled the painted wooden Anubis that was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun in Thebes.   Perhaps his god of the dead was not a jackal (an animal which paradoxically has the reputation for digging up human bones in cemeteries), but the ancestor of the ‘podenco’, this dog, with upright ears, sometimes called the ‘pharaoh’s greyhound’.  It must be noted that the podenco was not a greyhound, but a different kind of racing dog, muscular, swift, and gifted with an excellent sense of small, a characteristic which the greyhound lacks.

From 'The Life, History, and Magic of The Dog’  by Fernand Mery, Madison Square Press.

. . . The stele of Anefaa II (Xth dynasty) shows the pharaoh escorted by four very different types of dog; a greyhound of the Nubian type, another dog quite like an Australian dingo, a heavily built mastiff, and a rather curious, very small dog . . .

. . .  The Egyptians freed themselves from Hyksos, but they kept the mastiff (without, however, abandoning other dogs).   Queen Hatshepsut (XVIIIth dynasty) sent emissaries to the Land of Punt to give that ruler some of the finest and fleetest of her greyhounds.   The Egyptian dog was now invested with a new role.   The newcomer, the mastiff, became the soldier’s dog, or more exactly, the ‘devouring dog’ which was set on the fleeing enemy.   In the Cairo museum there is a wooden casket, as richly decorated as a Persian miniature, which shows the pharaoh Tutankhamun (XVIIIth dynasty, 1352 B.C.) standing upright in his chariot, shooting arrows at routed Nubian soldiers, who are being harried by his Assyrian dogs.

Whether or not these powerful cream-colored mastiffs, wearing wide collars armed with wrought-iron spikes, were imported by the Hyksos is of very little importance.  They were the ancestors of those fierce sheep dogs still so numerous in the Taurus region and the Anatolian plateau, which are still used by the Turks to guard their flocks . . .