Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/287

 KROEBER] GAMES OF THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS 275

The ball game, whatever its character, was well fitted for com- petition between towns or districts, and was often heavily backed with stakes ; but, except with the Mohave and perhaps the Yokuts, who favored respectively the rolling hoop and the shinny stick, the gambling game above all others, and therefore the man's game par excellence, among the California tribes, was the "hand" or "grass" game, a contest of guessing. Tremendous energy and concentration were thrown into this play, which was passionately followed. Songs and sometimes drumming were regular features, without which the stimulus to play hard would be weakened, and the contestants' luck magically diminished. Actually, the singing and rhythmic swaying aided the player to conceal his knowledge of the location of the "ace" by enabling him better to control his expression.

A public ritual, a dance, even a mourning ceremony, could hardly take place without the accompaniment, at least at the conclusion, of the guessing game. It is hard for us to realize to the full the large degree to which this amusement or occupation entered into the life not so much of a professional class of gamblers as of all the California Indians. Their avarice, and the importance to them of their wealth, hardly allowed them to bet as recklessly, and to strip themselves as completely of all belongings on a run of ill luck, as some of the eastern tribes, with whom liberality rather than possession carried prestige; but they made up in the frequency, the duration, and the tenacity of their play.

Two types of the game occur, and these do not differ fundamen- tally. In the northwest, a bundle of twenty-five to fifty slender rods is used, one being painted in the center. These sticks are shuffled in sight of the opponent with a peculiar rolling twist, divided behind the back, and then shown, the middle portions concealed in the hands. After some deliberation, and frequent false or pretended starts, the opponent guesses for the hand con- taining the one marked stick, indicating his decision by pointing past the other hand. If he is right, he wins nothing but the privilege of playing; if wrong, one counter goes to the player, who shuffles again. An expert player always knows the place of the marked

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