Dast-i-khun (The Hand of Blood)

We've got a newly published article at Goddesschess by Charles K. Wilkinson, written back in 1943, within a relatively short time after the Nishapur chess pieces were discovered in Iran. It's called "Chess and Chessmen," which gives absolutely nothing away, lol! The Nishapur pieces are a big deal to chess historians because they are, I believe, the oldest yet discovered abstract chess pieces after the Arab style, dating to around 760 CE. Wilkinson's article is geared toward the more general reader, as it was published in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Bulletin. And so he gives a rather standard chess historian's overview of the history of chess from the traditionalist point of view (sticking close to the script, as the saying goes), but enlivens his article with several nice graphics depicting scenes from the Shahnameh and chess pieces 1,000 and more years old. We've livened things up even more by adding our own set of footnotes and commentary, some "food for thought." Dast-i-khun - the hand of blood. The phrase comes from the practice, in the early days of chess, of players wagering their own body parts as a bet in a game of chess. Wilkinson added it as a footnote to his article, almost as an afterthought. I was absolutely intrigued by the reference and appalled by the practice, so I tracked down some further information on it. We provide a reference from H.J.R. Murray to the practice and more description that you won't find anywhere else online (until the copyists find the article, that is). I'll bet there are a lot of chemists and pharmaceutical companies out there that would love to know what kind of herbs and other things went into that red "ointment" Murray describes as instantly cauterizing a wound! I am intrigued by the possibility of a "blood" connection to one or possibly more rituals of the ancient Persians from the days of their worship of the fire god and a sort of secrete society meaning for or mystical use of chatrang in either the ritual and/or in the religion; as I understand it, in certain rituals the blood of a sacrificed wolf was drunk by the worshippers. Hmmm, after having read through the above, I guess it's no wonder most men are scared to death of me. Bwwwwwwaaaaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaa.....