INDIANS OF WASHINGTON TERRITORy. 649 



one being transferred to the winner each time the game is won. If 

 there is a hirge number used, and fortune favors each party nearly 

 alike, it takes a long time, sometimes three or four days, to finish a 

 game. This game is sometimes played by only two persons, but usu- 

 ally there are many engaged in it. In the latter case, when one player 

 becomes tired, or thinks he is in bad luck, another takes his place. 



Another form of this game is called the tamanous game. A large 

 number of people, who have a tamanous, including the women, take 

 part in it, but the men only shuffle the disks. The difference between 

 this form of the disk game and the other form consists in the tamanous. 

 While one man plays the other members of his party beat a drum, clap 

 their hands, and sing, each one, I believe, singing his or her own 

 tamanous song to invoke the aid of his special guardian spirit. I was 

 lately present at one of these games where forty tally blocks or checks 

 were used, and which lasted for four days, when all agreed to stop, 

 neither party having won the game. Very seldom do they play for 

 mere fun. There is generally a small stake, and sometimes from $100 

 to $200 is bet. 



The Indians say that they now stake less money and spend less time 

 in gaming than formerly. It is said that in former years as much as a 

 thousand dollars was sometimes staked and that the players became so 

 infatuated as to bet everything they had, even to the clothes on their 

 backs. At present they seldom gamble except on rainy days, or when 

 they have little else to do. 



There is no drinking in connection with it. Outside parties some- 

 times bet on the game as white people do. 



There is a tradition that when Dokibatt " came a long time ago he 

 told them to give up all their bad habits and things, these amongothers ; 

 that he took the disks and threw them into the water, but that they 

 came back. He then threw them into the fire, but they came out. He 

 threw them away as far as he could, but they returned, and so he threw 

 them away five times, and every time they came back, after which he 

 told the people that they might use them for fun or sport." 



(3) The woman's game. This is played with implements made of 

 beaver or muskrat teeth. It is played much after the manner of dice. 

 There are two pairs of them. Generally two persons play, one on each 

 side, but sometimes there are two or three on each side. The teeth are 

 taken quickly in one hand and thrown down on a blanket. One has a 

 tring around the middle. If this one is down and all the rest up, or up 

 and all the rest down, it counts four; if all are up or down it counts two. 

 If one pair is up and the other down it counts one, but if one pair is 

 up or down and the other divided (unless it be as above when it counts 

 four), then it counts nothing. Thirty is a game, but they generally 

 play three games and bet more or less money, dresses, or other things. 

 They sometimes learn very expertly to throw the one with the string 

 on it differently from the others by arranging them in the hand so that 



