Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/52

42 allowed to fall on another blanket. Two of the pieces belong to each man and are companions. The manner in which the sticks fall determines the result. There is a pool with twelve markers in it, and he who wins the markers wins the game. The winner takes the twelve markers up into his hands and breathes on them. This is because they have been good to him and allowed him to win. It is wholly a game of chance, and horses, guns, saddles, and everything are staked upon the throw.

Tash-a-lē-wā.—Tis is a game of chance, is played by two, and is very popular. The players sit on the ground, with a ring of forty small stones, in four sections of ten stones each, between them. The ring is usually several feet in diameter. In the center is a large flat stone called a-rey-ley, upon which the players make their throws. The dice, ta-mey, are small flat sticks about three inches long, and painted red on one side. These are taken in the right hand and thrown endwise on the central stone. If the three red sides turn up, the player scores ten and gets another throw; if the three white sides, he gets five; two red and one white, three; two white and one red, two. For counting, each player has a stick called a horse, or touche. Starting from the same interval in the circle of stones, each player moves his marker over as many stones as he has won points. Should the two meet at the same interval, the second one coming there will send the first one back home, and he must begin over. The idea, as given by the Indians, is, that the newcomer has dismounted or killed the first one. The horse is supposed to stop and drink at the intervals between the groups of stones. One game which I witnessed had loaded rifle-cartridges for stakes. Each player places his bet within the circle of stones.

Ti-kwa-we, or Game of the Kicked Stick —This is the great