730 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



greens placed aronna it, and is used as a mascot; it is placed to one side of the 

 circle and is appealed to by the players to give tliem good nnmbers; this mascot is 

 generally called " Kum-mfishk-ko-yo," a traditional fairy or witch. The name 

 means "the old spider woman." 



SiA. New Mexico. 



Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson ^ describes the game as played by tbe 

 Sia under the name of Wash'lcasi. 



Forty pebbles form a square, ten pebbles on a side, with a tiat stone in the center 

 of the square (fig. 51). Four flat blocks, painted black on one side and unpainted 

 on the other, are held vertically and dropped upon the stone. 



The counts are as follows: 



4 painted sides up = 10 

 4 unpainted sides uj) = 6 

 3 painted sides up = 3 

 2 painted sides uji = 2 

 1 painted side up = 



The players move in opposite di- 

 rections, both starting at one of the 

 corners. The game is described as 

 the first of four games played by 

 Po'shaiyJinne, the Sia culture hero, 

 with the tribal priest. The stake 

 was the latter's house in the north. 

 The second of the four games is of 

 the bowl class, which I have included 

 in this series. The stake in this 

 game was the ti'iimoni, or priest's, 

 house in the west. It was played with six 2-inch cubes, which were 

 highly polished and painted on one side. These were tossed up in 

 a large bowl held with each hand. " When three painted sides are 

 up, the game is won ; with only two painted sides up, the game is lost. 

 Six painted sides up is equivalent to a march in euchre." The games 

 that followed were, first, a game played with four sticks with hollow 

 ends, under one of which a pebble was hidden. This was played for 

 the priest's house in the south. Second, a game played with four little 

 mounds of sand, in one of which a small round stone was hidden. This 

 was played for the priest's house in the east. The games were then 

 repeated in the same order commencing with Wash'kasi for the house 

 in the zenith, the game with the six blocks for the house in the nadir, 

 and finally, the third in order, that with the four sticks with hollow 

 ends, for all the people of the tribe. 



Mr. Charles F. Lummis informs me he has witnessed the game with 

 the staves or blocks in the following pueblos belonging to this stock: 

 Acoma, Oocliito, Laguna, El Kito(Laguna Colony) and San Feliije. 



iThe Sia, Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1894, 

 p. 60. 



