the freeway slowdance

Snakes and Ladders, Part Deux

okay, folks. new information after, what is apparently a week of thought/research on the matter. lisa molle, from high school, who i haven't spoken to in 3 years or so, IM'd me to say that in Canada, it was Snakes and Ladders and she thought this was because of the close connection between Britain and Canada.

we discussed this further and thought that given the moral-images of MB's Chutes and Ladders, and the title Snakes, there must have been some sort of biblical reference.

after some quick googling, here is all i have come to discover.

Snakes and Ladders was derived from an ancient Indian game called Moksha-Patamu which had many more snakes than ladders. The ladders were labeled with Virtues, and the Snakes labeled with Vices. Five Virtues: Faith (12), Reliability (51), Generosity (57), Knowledge (76), Asceticism (78) versus 12 Vices: Disobedience (41), Vanity (44), Vulgarity (49), Theft (52), Lying (58), Drunkenness (62), Debt (69), Rage (84), Greed (92), Pride (95), Murder (73) and Lust (99). A Hindu gamed, it taught children how to move from one tier of life to the next, and eventually reach Nirvana.

The Victorians, digging the whole morality of the game, ported it over to Britain ca. 1892 and renamed the vices and virtues to Victorian ideals like Penitence, Thrift and Industry.

In 1943, then it was first published in the U.S. by Milton Bradley as Chutes and Ladders.

So then the question remains ... why Chutes as opposed to Snakes? Was it to be more consistent with the idea of a ladder? Was it to remove the denomination specific implications of a snake?

If you have the answer, please let me know.