This argument seeks to pull together the available evidence on one prominent class of board-games, mankala, highlighting its formal structure, imagery and history. It stresses mankala's close parallels with geomantic divination, which are treated in detail. It formulates (largely in dialogue with the great historian of games Murray) such theoretical and methodological considerations as an assessment of the scattered and heterogeneous evidence necessitate. In this connection I discuss board-games and divination as formal models, their relation to narrative literature, their temporal structure, symbolism and mathematics.