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Roll The Bones


Mike

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Roll The Bones - Songfacts

Dice.jpg

In ancient times the tossing of a dice was not just considered to be form of luck, the outcome was believed to be controlled by the gods and casting dice was a way of dividing ones inheritances, choosing the rulers and as a method of predicting events. The Roman goddess, Fortuna, the daughter of Zeus (known to gamblers as Lady Luck), was believed to determine the outcome of the throw.

Before standard cubical dice became the common for dice, ancient peoples would use fruit pits, stones, pairs of flat sticks, sea shells, nut shells and pebbles to get the random results for games. These customs were probably adopted from witch doctors and shaman who would toss them to gain insight and knowledge of the unknown and things to come. Fortune telling is still practiced with standard dice to this day.

Animal knucklebones were the next step in the evolution of dice. The Greeks and Romans used sheep anklebones as well as the more developed cubical spotted dice. The Romans called the four-sided anklebones Tali or Astaragali and the standard six-sided dice Tesserae. The Arab word for knucklebones is the same word they use for dice. Playing with dice is still known as "rolling the bones" to this day.

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"You spin the wheel and I'll roll the bones..." ~ Roger Clyne

Thanks for the education, PF. Intriguingly (for me) just three days ago my son and I were listening to Roger Clyne's song "Heaven Or The Highway Out Of Town" (see lyric sample above) and he asked what the heck does "roll the bones" mean. I gave him a general explanation, but certainly not the detail you've supplied here. Must be something in the air... is Vegas calling me...?

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