Excited, I eagerly pointed to the left one and was surprised not to see a doll or any remotely identifiable toy. Rather, what he held was a small rectangular wooden frame with beads in columns and a cross rod to divide the beads into two parts. In time I learned that in an abacus, each bead over the rod represents quantities of five, while under the rod each bead represents quantities of one. In using abacus calculations to discover how to swiftly perform arithmetic operations, I came to value it more than any computerized game. When I started school I would proudly recite the story of the founding of Suan-Pan in 1200 C.E.