784 



REPOliT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Each player then shuttled his cane < anls back and forth in his palms as before de- 

 sciibod, !is thuniih to smooth and heat them, addressed them, especially tbe stick of 

 his special quarter, as (for the East) " Trhim-mi ko-ha-ktra id i ydthl td iu! " "Now 

 then, white one, come thou uppermost! " Then laying the all-sender (or his special 

 slip as snch) across tlie two middle fingers and the other three slips upon it inside 

 of one another, bis thumb jiressing over their midst, the ends pointed outward over 

 the index linger, and the bases held down to tlie base of the palm by the bent-over 

 little finger (fig. Ill), ho quickly breathed or putfed upon them, shouted at them, and 

 cast them skillfully against the stretched skin of the basket, so that they rebounded 

 swiftly and fell almost unerringly within the circle on the j^y'ioiwe or bed of buffalo 

 hide. Now it was noted which slip lay uppermost over the others. If the White 

 man threw, and if the white stick lay uppermost over all the others, he uttered 



^ 



Fig. 112. 



SET OP CANES FOE SHO'-Ll-WE (REPROUUCTIONS). 



Length, 5^ inches. 

 Zufii. 



Cat. No. 1664:i, Museum of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania. 



thanks and the cast counted him fonr and gave him the privilege of another cast. 

 If, moreover, all three slips (except his sender) lay concave sides upward, they 

 counted him ten and gave him a second additional throw. If all three fell convex 

 side up, they counted him five. If two concave sides and one convex side up, they 

 connted him three, and if two convex sides and one concave side up they counted 

 him only one. The player who had the largest number of both kinds of counts after 

 each had tried, led off in the game and was supposed to be favored by the gods at 

 the beginning. With but a slight change in the system of the counting, the game 

 was continued; that is, the double counts were kept if the process included gam- 

 bling — that is, "willingness to 8a( rifice" — but only tln^ counts according to the re- 

 gions, if the game was purely an arrow or war divination. But it is to be noted that 

 in either case an ingenious method was resorted to in order to equalize the counts. 

 Since the North or Yellow man could gain only one and a double throw if his slip 



