From: Peter Banaschak <Peter.Banaschak <at> T-ONLINE <dot> DE>
Date: 11 nov 1999
Subject: Barin

Ahoi!

> Just to confuse matters further, if you ever get into Dai-Dai Shogi orTai Shogi you will come across a "Barin". This we have called somewhat simply but with some reason a Flying Horse. But what exactly a Barin
> is we have never been able to establish. Another mystical beast for sure and we appreciate the significance of "Ba" in this context, but can anyone say for certain what it is?

The way it is given in the booklet "Dai-Dai Shogi and how to
play it", the 'Ba' means 'horse', the 'rin' is a
mythological beast, more specifically 'a female Chinese
unicorn'. Shogi rokushu no zushiki gives exactly the same
'barin' in Dai-Dai-Shogi (horse+female unicorn) and
Tai-Shogi (but here with a different move!).
Morohashis Dai Kan-Wa jiten knows 'barin' (modern Chinese ma
lin, or, here more appropriate Ma Lin) only as a personal
name of three people (one from Song, two from Ming
times)(and he ought to know!).
Thus judging from the characters alone, it ought to be a
'Horse-unicorn'....
(Not very helpful, I know....)

Peter