This sound gives mah-jongg its name, which in Chinese means "clattering sparrow," because the sound of the tiles is reminiscent of the noise squabbling sparrows make over scattered food crumbs.

The tiles are stacked, two high, into a wall in front of each player, symbolizing the Great Wall of China or the walls around a city.

But this traditional game has gone beyond its Chinese roots and is played around the world.

Here in Cupertino one can hear the clicking of mah-jongg tiles in many locations, from the senior center to Chateau Cupertino, a retirement center, to private homes.

One major group of mah-jongg players in the United States and in Cupertino is Jewish-American women.

"I think many Jewish people learned to play mah-jongg at Grossinger's Resort in the Catskills during the summer," says Chateau resident Joan Pizzo, who learned the game from Jewish friends in Whitestone, Long Island.

Members of Congregation Beth David, in Saratoga, play regularly and have held a tournament for the past six or seven years for fun and profit in a friendly environment, says tournament coordinator Phyllis Zis.

"We have lunch and socialize with all levels of players from around the Bay," she says. The women sponsor the tournament under the name "Mah-jongg Mavens," which is a name used by Jewish groups across the country.

Some players get into high-level competition. There are "high-stakes" tournaments that draw players from around the world.

Many of the mah-jongg players at the Chateau, including Val Backer, have been to tournaments in Las Vegas. "But I'm not a gambler," Backer says.

In mid-March, more than 500 players will be at the "Mah-jongg Madness" tournament in Las Vegas, where winners receive as much as $2,000, according to Zis.

Truly dedicated players can travel to these large tournaments at different locations across the country; some are even held on cruise ships.

And though the object of the game is to score points and win (sometimes a small cash jackpot), the rich friendships and camaraderie are what draw these Jewish women to the game and have done so for generations.

Marion Baill has been playing mah-jongg since 1950. "Though you wouldn't guess that by the way I play," she modestly admits after losing a hand. "My mother played mah-jongg, and I watched her, but I didn't learn from her."

Baill's neighbors in suburban Detroit taught her the game while their children were at school. She continues today with her new friends at the Chateau. Many of the other players there, mostly women, learned from friends.

Each game may last 15­20 minutes, with play continuing for several hours.

"We played on Friday evenings, when the husbands would babysit," Baill says of former days.

Zelda Levy says her aunt played all the time. "She had two sets, and she taught me when I was growing up in Boston 60 years ago. I've been playing ever since," she says.

The game has gotten many women through tough times.

This camaraderie is documented in a prize-winning video Mah-Jongg—The Tiles That Bind that focuses on both Asian- and Jewish-American women who play the game.

"Mah-jongg helped us get through bad times, through the Depression, through times without jobs, through illness, through loss of a loved one, and that was very important," say several avid players on the video.

The game goes very far back in time.

Marco Polo brought many Chinese things West, but not mah-jongg, though there is a legend that says Noah played the game on his Ark during the Biblical flood. And, of course, Confucius is said to have played the game. And over the years there have been many popular gambling games similar to mah-jongg in China.

In 1935, official American rules were established by the National Mah-jongg League, and each year new scoring combinations are published. The 2004 edition, due out in mid-March, will be the 67th. Today, the nonprofit, rule-making organization claims 200,000 members worldwide.

At the Cupertino Senior Center, players at some tables follow league rules, while those at other tables play a more traditional Chinese game. New members like Sunny Li, who had never played by the American rules, learn quickly. He won the second hand he played.

Deanne Tong is happy to play at either table. She learned to play American-style at the senior center, but when she grew up in the Sacramento area—the third generation of a family that came from Canton—she played Chinese mah-jongg at family parties. "My brother-in-law is so good he knew my hand without me showing him. Once, he said, 'You just won,' and I didn't even know it." Tong is passing on the game by teaching her grandchildren.

Tong met one mah-jongg player at the senior center who was from Germany and who played against others on the Internet. "When she played, she set her own rules before the games began," Tong says. "There are many ways to play the game."

Pizzo is another player at the senior center who prefers the American game. She now lives at Chateau Cupertino, where she also plays. She says, "It's a fun game—a good thinking game. It keeps you alert."

Pizzo moved to Florida from Long Island when her children were grown, and she especially enjoyed the challenging games there.

In the original Chinese version of the game, sets consist of the four Winds: East, South, West and North; three Dragons: Green, Red and White; nine Bamboo tiles; nine Circles tiles; and nine Wan tiles. For each of these 34 different tile types, there are four identical pieces, for a total number of 136 tiles. There are eight special tiles used solely for the purpose of scoring bonus points: the Flower and Season tiles. In all, a Chinese mah-jongg set has 144 tiles.

Under league rules there are wild tiles, called Jokers, for a total of 152 tiles.

To play the game, each player is dealt 13 or 16 tiles, depending on which rules are used.

The object of the game is to collect combinations of tiles called Chows, Pungs and Kongs. A Chow is a numerical sequence of three tiles of the same suit. A Pung is three identical tiles of the same suit. A Kong is four identical tiles of the same suit.

Players pick up and discard tiles as they try to make sets of three identical tiles (Pung), four identical tiles (Kong) and a sequence of three tiles of the same suit (Chow). A player wins with four combinations that can be Pungs and/or Kongs and/or Chows plus a pair of identical tiles.

Each year the league assigns different point values for possible winning combinations. Point totals may be different for each winning player's hand.

Reasons to play this game run the gamut. Sometimes it's gambling for money. San Jose dentist Mel Matsushima recalls that his college roommate paid his way through school playing mah-jongg in Oakland and San Francisco. And Zelda Levy, at Chateau Cupertino, remembers when she was a youth in Boston, the authorities raided mah-jongg games that included heavy betting.

At the Cupertino Senior Center, no money changes hands, says Recreation Coordinator Teresa Mo. People play for the opportunity to get together and talk. Every Friday at the Cupertino Senior Center is Mah-jongg Free Play from 1 to 4 p.m.

Levy plays today at Chateau Cupertino with her friends and recalls that when she first learned, people who didn't win any money said they were "playing for the pie" because eating was an important part of the get-togethers. And that's still true today.

With players eating fruit, nuts and candy while playing, the tiles sometimes get dirty, and at Chateau Cupertino, the mah-jongg tables are set up in the dining room after lunch is finished.

"I used to wash my set with soap and water," Levy recalls. "I bought it at Toys "R" Us for $90."

"Just water," fellow player Backer says. 'You don't want the soap to wash the colors off."

Most evidence points to the late 19th century for the origin of mah-jongg as it is played today. The game became popular with the British and Americans living in the international colony in Shanghai.

Mah-jongg was brought to America in 1922 by Joseph P. Babcock, who began importing sets in large numbers. At that time, Babcock was the Soochow representative of the Standard Oil Company. He realized that many expatriate residents of Shanghai were playing mah-jongg along with the Chinese.

According to Gareth Reagan of Mind Sports Organization Worldwide Ltd., Babcock copyrighted the name "'mah-jongg' and issued a simplified set of rules with each mah-jongg set sold. Babcock also gave English translations to the tiles to ensure ease of use by Americans."

Also in the early 1920s, San Francisco lumber merchant W.A. Hammond formed the Mah-jongg Sales Company of San Francisco and began importing large quantities of sets.

With the mah-jongg craze sweeping the United States before the Great Depression, the sets numbered sixth in imports from Shanghai, after silk, lace, leather, eggs and tea, totaling more than $1.5 million. During this period, cow bone was shipped from Kansas City and Chicago to Shanghai to meet the demand for production of new sets.

Mah-jongg sets are available on the Internet starting at less than $100 for the American-style with a hard case and $250 for a Chinese set with walnut case to $350 for 100-year-old Chinese sets. Some of the original sets were ivory or very heavy cow bone with bamboo backing, but today marble, soapstone, glass, solid wood, Bakelite and plastic have taken their place.

The Cupertino Senior Center was presented a mah-jongg set by Cupertino's sister city, Hsin-Chu, in Taiwan.

Movies such as The Joy Luck Club and Driving Miss Daisy, which featured mah-jongg games, helped raise the game's visibility with a younger generation, Zis says, "Many of the younger children today are too busy with sports and other activities, but we began playing because it was something to do." Zis has, however, taught her two daughters to play the game.

In Amy Tan's book The Joy Luck Club, one of her characters says, "We play mah jong for fun, just for a few dollars, winner take all. Losers take home leftovers! So everyone can have some joy."

After more than 25 years of playing, Zis continues to play a couple of games weekly. She says, "It's exactly like The Joy Luck Club."