Jackstones game

Jackstones (also called jacks, fivestones, jackrocks, onesies, knucklebones, or snobs) is a game played by one or more persons with from one to five small pebbles or bits of iron. Regular iron jackstones have six knobbed prongs. The game may be played in several ways. There is tossing and catching in all of them. The five stones may be held in the palm of the hand and thrown up together and caught on the back of íhe hand. The jack may be tossed up and caught alternately on the palm and the back of the hand, the player counting five for each successful catch. The player who reaches the highest score wins. Sometimes four stones are laid on the ground. The player losses the jack and catches it, picking up a stone from the ground each time, while the jack is in the air. This method may be varied by holding the four stones in the hand and laying one on the ground between each toss and catch. Sometimes the jackstones are laid in a pile. The player arranges them in a figure, as the four corners of a square or in a straight line, this between tosses.