Eleusis

eleusis, card game invented by Robert Abbott and first described in Martin Gardner’s “Mathematical Games” column in Scientific American (July 1959). A more-refined version appeared in Abbott’s New Card Games (1967), with a further extension privately published in 1977.

Formally, eleusis resembles a game of the crazy eights family in that players try to get rid of their cards by playing to the layout a card that in some specified way matches the previous card or cards played. The difference, however, is immense. In crazy eights the rule or rules by which one card follows another are known in advance—typically, the next card played must match the previous one by rank or suit. In eleusis the dealer, sometimes known as the prophet, starts by inventing a secret rule of matching. The other players then seek to discover this rule by attempting at each turn to play a card to the “mainline” (typically a horizontal line of valid plays) and observing whether the dealer either allows it, thereby admitting that it matches the previous card according to the secret rule, or forbids it, in which case it must be played to a “sideline” of nonacceptable cards running at right angles to the mainline. A player confident of having discovered the rule may seek to play a string of cards of which the first properly matches the previous card played and the others follow accordingly.

The game is of philosophical interest in that it mimics the process of scientific discovery by induction rather than deduction. That is, in order to win, the players seek to discover the rule by observing which cards do and do not follow it in particular instances, formulating hypotheses as to what it may be, attempting further cards that test the current hypothesis, and modifying it accordingly. The scoring system is cleverly designed to encourage the dealer to invent a rule that is neither too easy nor too hard to discover. On average, it should give a randomly played card at least a one-in-five chance of being acceptable. For example:

• 1. If the last card was odd, play a black card; if even, play a red card.
• 2. If the last two cards match in colour, play a high number; otherwise, play a low number.
• 3. If the last card attempted by the previous player was accepted, play a red card; if not, play black.
• 4. Each card must be higher than the last mainline card until a face card is reached, which must then be followed by a numeral card.

Each player in turn becomes the dealer, but within any given deal it is possible for a player who thinks he has discovered the rule to take over the functions of the dealer and advise other players as to whether they can play. Upon making a mistake, however, he is expelled and becomes an ordinary player again.

There comes a point in the play at which everyone is assumed to have had long enough to discover the rule, and anyone who thereafter contravenes it is expelled from the current deal.