because ages ago they used to use marbles instead of glass balls.
There is a marble type called an "alley" which is short for alabaster, a type of colorful layered stone.
Im not sure, Ive lost mine
Haha, no.... In the end of the novel, " The Clay Marble", "After all, the magic isn't in the marble. It's in me!," ( 160).
Marbles originated in ancient Rome and Egypt and were made from marble (rock). However this was expensive so people tried to find alternatives and in 1846 a German glass blower invemnted a marble...