CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 



737 



tnieqnally, they wiu uotliiui;-. 'I'bey (juit when one side lias won nil the stakes. 

 In this game of beavers' teeth {piimaii ii'it) or woodchiicka' teeth {miUjam ttil) they 

 nse twelve check sticks to count their gains with. The game is played by two 

 ])ersons, or by two partners on each side. Women only ])lay this game. 



The beaver teeth game may be regarded as a modification of the 

 bone game, phiyed by the Blackfeet. The four beaver teetli marked 

 witli circles or dots and lines arranged in chevrons clearly replace the 

 four vsimilarly marked staves. Again the tooth tied with sinew (see 

 account l)y Mr. Eells, p. 747) corres^ionds with the sinew wrapped stave. 

 The counters, IJ, agree with those of the IJlackfeet. 



MARIPOSAN STOCK. 



YoxUT. Fort Tejon and Tule liiver, California. (Cat. No. 11)()()5, 

 U.S.N.M.) ^ 

 Set of eight dice (fig. US), made of canyon walnut tihells split in the 

 middle, and each half bowl tilled with pitch ami powdered charcoal 



Fig. 58. 



SET OF W.VLXDT SHELL DICE. 



Diameter, 1 iueli. 



Yokut Iiitlians, Ciilii'ornia. 



Cat. No. l'.l".95, U.S.N.'h 



inliiid with small red and white glass beads and bits of abalonc slicll. 

 Collected by Stephen Powers. 

 The game is thus described by the collector : ' 



Tlie Yokuts have a sort of 'vaiuMing which pertains exclusively to women. It is 

 a ^iud of dice throwing and is called it-chit'-its. For a dice they take half of a large 

 acorn or walnut siiell, lill it level with pitch and pounded charcoal, and inlay it 

 with bits of bright-colored abalone sliells. For a dice-table they weave a very large, 

 line basket-tray, almost flat, and ornamented with devices woven in black or brown, 

 ni( stly rude imitations of trees and geometrical ligures. Four sc^uaws sit around it 

 to play, and a fifth keeps tally witii fifteen sticks. There are eiglit dice, and they 

 scoop them up in their hands and dash tliem into the basket, counting one when two 

 or live flat surfaces turn np. The rapidity with which the game goes forward is 

 wonderfn], and th<i players seem totally oLlivious to all things in the worhl beside. 

 Alter each throw that a jilayer makes she exclaims, yet' i>i (eciuivalent to oue-y), or 

 ivi-a-iak, or ko-mai-4h, which are simply a kind of sing-song or chanting. 



'Stephen Powers, Tribes of California, Contributions to North American Kth- 

 nology. Ill, p. 377, Washington, 1877. 

 NAT MUS 90 47 



