Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/106

84 on the other side. Success depends on the number of chips which, being thrown upwards, fall with their white sides up.) "Leave the game to me," said the Bat; "I have made thirteen chips that are white on both sides. I will hide myself in the ceiling, and when our champion throws up his chips I will grasp them and throw down my chips instead."

215. Another game they were to play is called nánsos.76 (It is played with two long sticks or poles, of peculiar shape and construction, one marked with red and the other with black, and a single hoop. A long, many-tailed string, called the "turkey-claw," is secured to the end of each pole.) "Leave nánsos to me," said Great Snake; "I will hide myself in the hoop and make it fall where I please."

216. Another game was one called tsĭ′nbetsil, or push-on-the-wood. (In this the contestants push against a tree until it is torn from its roots and falls.) "I will see that this game is won," said Nasĭ′zi, the Gopher; "I will gnaw the roots of the tree, so that he who shoves it may easily make it fall."

217. In the game tsol, or ball, the object was to hit the ball so that it would fall beyond a certain line. "I will win this game for you," said the little bird Tsĭlkáli, "for I will hide within the ball, and fly with it wherever I want to go. Do not hit the ball hard; give it only a light tap, and depend on me to carry it."

218. The pets of the gambler begged the Wind to blow hard, so that they might have an excuse to give their master for not keeping due watch when he was in danger, and in the morning the Wind blew for them a strong gale. At dawn the whole party of conspirators left the mountain, and came down to the brow of the canyon to watch until sunrise.

219. Nohoílpi had two wives, who were the prettiest women in the whole land. Wherever she went, each carried in her hand a stick with something tied on the end of it, as a sign that she was the wife of the great gambler.

220. It was their custom for one of them to go every morning at sunrise to a neighboring spring to get water. So at sunrise the watchers on the brow of the cliff saw one of the wives coming out of the gambler's house with a water-jar on her head, whereupon the son of Hastséhogan descended into the canyon and followed her to the spring. She was not aware of his presence until she had filled her water-jar; then she supposed it to be her own husband, whom the youth was dressed and adorned to represent, and she allowed him to approach her. She soon discovered her error, however, but, deeming it prudent to say nothing, she suffered him to follow her into the house. As he entered, he observed that many of the slaves