Morra (game)
Morra is a hand game that dates back thousands of years to ancient Roman and Greek times. Each player simultaneously reveals their hand, extending any number of fingers, and calls out a number. Any player who successfully guesses the number of fingers revealed scores a point.
Morra can be played to decide issues, much as two people might toss a coin, or for entertainment.
Rules
While there are many variations of morra, most forms can be played with two, three, or more players. In the most popular version, all players throw out a single hand, each showing zero to five fingers, and call out loud their guess at what the sum of all fingers shown will be. If one player guesses the sum, that player earns one point. The first player to reach three points wins the game.
Some variants of morra involve money, with the winner earning a number of currency units equal to the sum of fingers displayed.
History
Morra was known to the ancient Romans and is popular around the world, especially in Italy. In the Bible, it may have been referred to as "casting lots". In ancient Rome, it was called micatio, and playing it was referred to as micare digitis; literally, "to flash with the fingers". As time passed, the name became morra, a corruption of the verb micare. The game was so common in ancient Rome that there was a proverb used to denote an honest person which made reference to it: dignus est quicum in tenebris mices, literally, "he is a worthy man with whom you could play micatio in the dark". Micatio became so common that it came to be used to settle disputes over the sale of merchandise in the Roman forum. This practice was eventually banned by Apronius, prefect of the city. Roman colonies were located in Europe, Asia and Africa.