CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 695 



The game is won by the red pieces, the arithmetical value of each of which is 

 fixed, iiud the count, as in all games of chance, is advanced or retarded by the luck 

 of the throw. Nothing is required but a wooden bowl, which is curiously curved 

 and ornamented (the owner relying somewhat on nuigic iutlueuce), and having a 

 plain, smooth surface. 



The autlior gives the counts for sixteen different throws from one 

 hundred and fifty-eight down to two. 



Long' gives the following description of the bowl game among the 

 Chippewa: 



Jlhtertjaiii, or miss none but catch all, is also a favorite amusement with them, in 

 whicli the women frequently take part. It is played with a number of hard beans, 

 black and white, one of which has small spots and is called liiug; they are put into 

 a shallow wooden bowl and shaken alternately by each party, who sit on the ground 

 opposite to one another; whoever is dexterous enough to make the spotted bean 

 jump out of the bowl receives of the adverse party as many beans as there are spots; 

 the rest of the beans do not count for anytliing. 



The following account, given by J. G. Kohl,'^ who does not designate 

 the particular tribe, probably refers to the Chippewa: 



The game called by the Indians pagessan, and which I frequently saw played, the 

 Canadians call le jeii au pJat (the game of the bowl). It is a game of hazard, but 

 skill plays a considerable part in it. It is played with a wooden bowl and a number 

 of small figures bearing some resemblance to our chessmen. They are usually carved 

 very neatly out of bones, wood, or plum stones, and represent various things — a fish, 

 a hand, a door, a man, a canoe, a half- moon, etc. They call these ^gurea paf/essanag 

 (carved plum stones), and the game has received its name from them. Each figure 

 has a foot on which it can stand upright. ' They are all thrown into a wooden bowl 

 (in Indian onagan), whence the French name is derived. The players make a hole 

 in the ground and tlirust the bowl with the figures into it, whih^ giving it a slight 

 shake. The more figures stand upright on the smooth bott(un of the bowl through 

 this shake all the better for the player. Each figure has its value, and some of 

 them represent to a certain extent the pieces in the game of chess. There are also 

 other figures, which may similarly be called the pawns. The latter, carved into 

 small round stars, are all alike, have no pedestal, but are red on one side and plain 

 on the other, and are counted as plus or minus according to the side uppermost. 

 With the pawns it is a perfect chance which side is up, but witli the pieces much 

 depends on the skill with which the bowl is shaken. The other rules and mode of 

 calculation are said to be very complicated, and the game is played with great 

 attention and passion. 



Cree. 

 In Father Lacombe's Cree dictionary -^ we fm^jeude Jiasard^pakessewin. 



Illinois. Illinois. 



It would appear from a manuscript Illinois dictionary in the library 

 of Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull^ that this tribe was familiar with the 

 game of plum-stones. 



' J. Long, Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter, London, 1791, p. 52. 

 '^ Kitchi-Gami, Wanderings Round Lake Superior, Loudon, 1860, p. 82. 

 ^R6v. Pere Alb. Lacombe, Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris, Montreal, 1874. 

 ■•Andrew McFarland Davis, Indian Games, Bulletin of the Essex Institute, XVIII, 

 p. 187. 



