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How it's played
 The
traditional Basque card game, played by four people in two partnerships.
Partnerships win beans by having the highest-scoring hands;
first partnership to win an agreed number of beans wins the
game. Hardly a bar is without at least one game of mus going
on somewhere, especially on weekend afternoons. The game is
never played for money, though the losers may be expected to
buy a round of drinks. A remarkable feature of the game is the
presence of a kind of institutionalized cheating, by which players
are allowed to pass information about their hands to their partners
by an agreed set of signals made with the face; unrecognized
signals are not permitted, and a player caught signalling by
an opponent must own up. The game is lively and skilful. The
name, which is used in the game to request new cards during
a hand, is of unknown origin, but cannot be native Basque; the
Catalan etymologist Corominas thinks it derives from French
mouche 'fly'. Particularly noticeable during a game is the occasional
cry of Hor dago! 'There it is!', used to announce a particular
sort of challenge.
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2002,
Pierre Igoa