The second paragraph has a lot of relevance for us humble travellers on the learning German path , or LGP as we call it round our way.......
"I bought it, because the instructions looked so fascinating. I am not what you would call fluent in German . I knew just enough for me to bumble along in a half-understanding daze, feeling comfortably that by knowing just a few more words I could speak it like a native. I desist from actually learning these few more words because I know that in fact this would be a dreary process extending over several years while I found out about things like Schicksal and Empfindsamkeit; and because I also know that during the first half of this period the pleasant sense of comprehension which I feel now would diminish rather than increase."
Well, I think we know what he's talking about there ! Let's see how they get on shall we ....
They are determined to sort out the German instructions and actually play a game of Halma.... they set to work on the first paragraph ...
"An diesem Spiel können sich bis 4 Personen beteiligen, von denen jede eine Farbe wählt, und damit, , wenn 2 Personen spielen, einen großen Hof mit 19 Steinen, wenn 4 Personen spielen einen kleinen Hof mit 13 Steinen besetzt."
As Jennings says.. " The only difficult words here seemed to be beteiligen and wählt ( I just happened to know that Farbe is"colour" ) . Our ( mainly my) translation ran thus ..."
" At this game 4 persons can betake themselves and each of these wears a colour and damn it, when 2 persons play, a big house with 19 stones , when 4 persons play, he besets a little house with 13 stones. "
It was clear enough to me ( says Jennings) . It conjured up a pleasant picture of these Persons wearing their colours and heraldically besetting each other's houses like something in a book of hours. I took "Damn it" to be an idomatic way of saying that the real way to play this game is with 4 Persons. Of course, you can play with with 2 Persons, but damn it, it's a pretty poor show. Harblow, however, insisted that damit means "with that" or " therewith" , so I allowed this, to pacify him; although it didn't seem to make any more sense.
" Es kann auf diese Weise ein ganze Reihe von Steinen überspringen werden "
...you can move "auch seitwärts oder rúckwärts"
and .... " über einige und fremde Steine fortzuspringen."
plus .. " der Gegner muss natürlich wiederum danach trachten, diesen Stein womöglich
in dem eigenen Hof des Spielers einzuschliessen."
Well, have fun with those, and soon I'll show you how Jennings and Harblow managed as well.