Goose

goose, French L’oie, ancient French board game, said to have been derived from the Greeks, which was popular in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages.

Goose was played on a board upon which was drawn a fantastic scroll, called the jardin de l’oie (“goose garden”), divided into 63 spaces marked with certain emblems, such as an inn, a death’s head, a bridge, and a labyrinth. The emblem inscribed on spaces 1 and 63, as well as on every ninth space between, was a goose.

The object of the game was to land one’s counter on number 63, after a series of moves to unoccupied spaces determined by the throw of two dice. A counter was moved forward, backward, or temporarily stalled, according to the space on which it was placed. Landing on an inn required a wait until two other players had played; landing on a death’s head required a player to start over; and landing on a goose doubled the move. The game was usually played for a stake, and special fines were exacted for landing on certain spaces. At the end of the 18th century, a variation of the game was called jeu de la revolution française (“game of the French Revolution”).