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Texto reemplazado: «<sup>th</sup> century» por «th century»
Skill is a quality to be found in all games in one way or another. Aptitude and ability is needed to play them and even guile and astuteness are components needed for many of them. This chapter considers those games where ''hand'' skills are the most common characteristics.
Some of them, such as knucklebones, are exclusively or typically played by girls and were their iconic game for many decades of the 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century. We have included with it games with stones, ''bostarrika'', as they are closely related and similar to knucklebones, to the extent that some authors have said that it could be a forerunner of the latter.
Games with stickers were played by both boys and girls even though in different ways and forms. Even though games with pins and tooth picks are barely played today, there were very popular at the start of the 20th century.
== Knucklebones. Sakak. Tortoloxak ==
As was discovered in the different locations surveyed, playing “knucklebones” was a childhood entertainment mainly for girls. The older people surveyed recalled that it was played at the start of the 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century. It seems that the rules and ways of playing were more complex in the past and were simplified later on.
This game is very widespread in time and space and common to many cultures. Telesforo de Aranzadi says: “Knucklebones have played an important role in European ethnography since pre-historic times. Its history certainly dates back to the era when Europeans were hunter-gatherers and in the Santimamiñe cave (Basondo-Kortezubi), knucklebones have been found of all sizes from 17 to 87 millimetres, in other words, from 2/3 to over 3 times the size of the most common ones used today. It is hard to imagine how the game could be the same using the large ones as with the small ones; but they could be used for spells and proof of their magical-religious importance is the bronze knucklebone with two handles, a votive offering to Aoikki at Dustna, near to a cubit in length, carried to Susa by Darius after the fall of Miletus and the looting of the temple at the end of the 6<sup>th</sup> 6th century BC."<ref>Telesforo de ARANZADI. “Knucklebones and teetotums in the Basque Country” in RIEV, XIV (1923) pp. 676-679.</ref>.
Knucklebones have been played in many different ways. That diversity can be seen in the elements of the game, its rules and the ditties to sing when playing.
== The spinning top. Tronpaka ==
The well-known spinning top was a traditional pastime for the children in the Basque Country for many decades of the 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century and still continues to be so today.
The toy is the spinning top, which is a piece of machined wood with a curved body that narrows to the end where the tip is located. The spinning top is divided into three parts, which are: the crown, which is the bulge in the upper part of the top; the body, which is the heavy core; and the tip, made out of iron and embedded in the wood. The iron tip is called ''rejón'' in Murguía amd Vitoria (A), ''pico'' in Mendiola (A) and ''untzia in'' Zeanuri (B).
