756 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Iowa. 



Catlin' describes a game among the Iowa uuder the name of Kon-tho- 

 (jra ("Game of I'latter"). 



This is the fascinating tjame of the women, aiul exclusively their own, jilayed 

 with a number of little blocks of wood the size of a half-crown piece, marked with 

 certain points for counting the game, to be decided by throws, as they are shaken 

 into a bowl and turned out on a sort of pillow. The bets are made after the bowl 

 is turned, and decided by the number of points and colors turned. 



Mandan. Fort Berthold, North Dakota. (Cat. Xo. 84L>7, H.S.N.M.) 



Set of five bone dice with incised designs (fig. 81) filled in with red 

 paint, and basket of woven grass (fig. 82) 7^ inches in diameter at top 

 and 3 inches deep. With the dice is a small clay effigy, 1:^ inches in 

 length, with legs ontspread, and with arms and head missing (fig. 83). 

 Collected by Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A. 



Catlin' mentions tbe game of the platter among the Mandan. 



Omaha. 



Dr. J. Owen Dorsey'' gives the following account under the name of 

 "Plum-stone Shooting," 5£a"'-si kide: * 



Five plum-stones are provided, three of which are marked on 

 /"/f"/^''fe one side only with a greater or smaller number of black dots or 



%4""''' ^^ W-vies and two of them are marked on both sides; they arc, how- 



/ %m ever, sometimes made of bone of a rounded or flattened form, 



iyJ %\ somewhat like an orbicular button-mold, the dots in this case 



/' ,fMmr\\\ being impressed. A wide dish and a certain number of small 



ti"Ww \ \ sticks by way of counters are also provided. Any number of 

 'ti** \^^ \ persons may play this game, and agreeably to the number en- 



gaged in it is the quantity of sticks or counters. The plum- 

 ^^S- 83. stones or bones are placed in a dish, and a throw is made by 



CLAY FETICH USED simjily joltlng the vcsscl agaiust tlic grouud to uiakc thc sccds or 

 i\ DICE GAME. ijoiies rcbound, and they are counted as they lie when they fall. 



Length, U inches. .^,j^^ party ])lay8 around for the first throw. Whoever gains all the 

 Maiul.in Indians, g|j<.ks in the course of the game wins the stake. The throws sue- 



x"'^.i T» 1 .' '' ceed each other with so much rapidity that we vainly endeavor to 

 Aorth Dakota. \. -i •> 



,• . X ,,- T- ex. A, observe their laws of computation, which it was the sole busi- 

 ness of an assistant to attend to. The seeds used in this game are 

 called \ia"'-si ge. Their number varies. Among the Ponka and Omaha only five are 

 used, while the Oto play with six. Sometimes four are marked alike, and the fifth 

 is black or white (unmarked). Generally three are black on one side and white or 

 unmarked on the other, while two have each a star on one side and a moon on the 

 other. The players must always be of the same sex and class; that is, men must 

 play men, youths with youths, and women with women. There must always be an 

 even number of players, not more than two on each side. There are about twenty 



' Thomas Donaldson, The George Catlin Indian Gallery, Report of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, 188,5, p. 152. 



-Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North Ameri- 

 can Indians, Londou, 1841, I, p. 132. 



' Omaha Sociology, Third Annual Report of the lUireau of Ethnology, Washington, 

 1884, p. 334. 



'Miss Alice C. Fletcher gives nn' the name of the game as gko«-fhi. Gko« is the 

 first syllalile of the word gko/(-de, "plum;" thi means seed. The game is described 

 by MaJ. S. H. Long (Account of an Fxi)cdition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, I, p. 215) under the name of Kon-se-lc-da. 



