If the bird chirped while it was thrown, the thrower was out of the game. If it chirped as it was caught, the catcher was out.
At the beginning of the game the players sat in a circle and the bird passed from a player to his immediate neighbour. In the second round, the bird was passed skipping every second player.In the third round, two players were skipped at each throw, and so forth.
So that no player be left out of a given round, the game must always be played by a prime number of contestants.
The bird’s path traced first a polygon of as many sides as there were players, and then all the stars that can be inscribed in that polygon.
Each round involved every player once and only once, the first tosser being the last catcher, but the bird went “round the circumference” more and more times as it was tossed more directly across the circle. Of course, the difficulty grew greater and greater as the chances of chirping increased with the longer tosses.
When a player (tosser or tossee) was eliminated, he still remained in his or her place and continued to play until enough players had been eliminated to ensure that the next round of play would also involve a prime number of players: these would now tighten the circle and start the game from the beginning, passing the bird along the sides of the new polygon.
Theoretically, any prime number of players could participate, but anything beyond 19 involved tossing the bird over 20 feet across the circle, and was not attempted.
It should be noted that the merciful (for the birds) Ming emperors decreed that any player who maimed the bird while throwing or catching it would be put to death at the end of that particular game. This was done by poisoning the bird to put it out of its misery, and then feeding it to the condemned player.
The game therefore involved “sets” of 19, 17, 13, 11, 7, 5, 3 and 2 players. Since the sets of few players in small circles often produced no chirps, after a “no chirper” the players moved to the next bigger circle and started over.
The winner was the last player left; his prize was to set the bird free.
The game became so popular that it is simply known as “the Ming game” (Ming t’On).
The portuguese learned about the game during their chinese ventures, and in the XVIIIth century the english became aware of it from them. Loving all sports as they do, they adapted the game to the British isles.
In the year 1753, the chinese ambassador to the Court of St. James was shown the english version, and when asked for his opinion he could not avoid saying (in spite of being chinese and a dip) : “Bad Ming t’On”, which is what the game is still called.
Birds on Ming dish:
Naked birds at badminton:
