720 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Alaska. It is possible that they are used in the same manner as the 

 fox bones. 



In the United States National JMuseum (Oat. No. 7404) are four 

 wooden blocks, said to be used in a game, from the Northwest Arctic 

 Coast. These blocks (fig. 45), which were collected by Mr. R. Kennicott. 

 have a rounded base marked with two transverse cuts. They are })er- 

 forated as if for stringing. From the locality given they are i)robabl\ 

 Eskmiauau. 



Ill conclusion, reference should be made to a game described by Mur- 

 doch' among the Point Barrow Eskimo with twisters and marline 

 spikes used for backing the bow. 



Lieutenant Ray says he has seen it played with any hits of stick or hone. Accord- 

 ing to him the players are divided into sides, who sit on the ground about 3 yards 

 apart, each side sticking up one of the marline spikes for a mark to throw the 

 twisters at. Six of the latter, he believes, make a complete set. One side tosses 

 the whole set, one at a time, at the opposite stake, and the points which they make 

 arc counted up by their opponents from the position of the twisters as they fall. 

 He did not learn how the points were reckoned, except that twisters with a mark on 



Fig. 40. 



TWISTERS USED IN GAME. 



Length, 5g inches. 

 Point Barrow Eskimo. 



After Mnnlorli. 



them counted differently from the plain ones, or how long the game lasted, each side 

 taking its turn of casting at the opposite stake. He, however, got the impression 

 that the winning side kept the twisters belonging to their opponents. Mr. Nelson 

 informs me that a similar game is played with the same imijlements at Norton 

 Sound. 



The present writer has repeated this account, from the general like- 

 ness of the implements (sinew twisters) (fig. 40) to the staves tossed as 

 dice, rather from any clearly apparent identity of the games. 



IROQUOIAN STOCK. 



Cherokee. North Carolina. 



I am informed by Mrs. Starr Hayes that the Cherokee play a game in 

 a flat square basket of cane like the lid of a market basket, with col 

 ored beans, under the name of " Black eye and white eye." The shal 

 low basket used is li feet square. The beans are colored "batter 

 beans," a variety of lima, and those selected are dark on one side and 

 white on the other. Twelve beans are kept as counters. Six others 

 are put in the basket, as they come, and the players, who are four in 

 number, and each two partners, play in turn. The basket is held in 



' Ninth Annual Rci)ort of tlie Bureau »(f Ktlinology, p. 364. 



