Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Map" to "Mars"

part in the game. There was some traditional reason for regarding

marbles as a Lenten sport--perhaps, as the Rev. W. D. Parish suggests, "to keep people from more boisterous and mischievous enjoyments."

The origin of the game is concealed in the mists of antiquity. Marbles used by Egyptian and Roman children before the Christian era are to be seen in the British Muse...