CHESS AND PLA.YING-CARDS. 



829 



The game is i)layed by two persons, who sit facing ench other, 4 or 5 

 feet apart. The bone is twirled into the air out of the thumb and fore- 

 finger, tlie baclv of tlie iiand being held upward. The position in which 

 it fiiUs on the ground controls the count in the game. So long as the 

 player succeeds in throwing the pitted side, or "cow-hoof," as it is called, 

 ui)ward, he retains possession of the bone, and with each throw wins one 

 bean from a i)rearranged number equally 

 divided between the jtlayers. The sides do 

 not count in the play, and the thrower may 

 play again and again without forfeiting the 

 bone until he throws the flat side (opposite 

 the " cow-hoof") upward, when the bone goes 

 to his opponent to throw, with the same 

 conditions. The winning of the entire num- 

 ber of an opponent's counters constitutes a 

 game won. 



In Costa Kica, Br. T. M. Oaluek informs 

 me that the Indians in the vicinity of San 



Jose continually play with the astragalus of an ox or cow, using a 

 single bone. They call the game by the name of Choque suelo. 



They are also used by the Indians in Peru. Their (,)uicliua name, 

 tava., would appear to be derived from the Spanish taha, but this is con- 

 trary to the opinion entertained by my informant. Dr. Emilio Montez,' 

 who exhibited a i)rehistoric copy of a knuckle bone in terra cotta, from 

 Cuzco, in his collection at the Columbian Exposition.^ 



Fig. 149. 



ASTRAIiALUS OK BISON USED AS DIE. 



Papago Indians, Pima County, 

 Arizona. 



(■:it. No. 174443, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 150. 

 ASTRAGALUS USED IN GAJIE. 



Lengua Indians. 



C-.a. Nil. 17117, Field C..iuiiilpi:m Miisi-iiiii. H:is,sli;r i-olW.-tinn. 



There are nine astragalus bones from the Lengua tribe, Chaco 

 Indians, in the Hassler collections from Paraguay, in the Field Colum- 

 bian Museum. Prof. William II. Holmes, who courteously furnished 

 me with the accompanying drawing (tig. 150), informed me that all but 

 one bear scratched lines, as represented. 



Knuckle bones of various animals, some worked and showing wear, 

 have been found associated with Indian remains in various parts of the 

 United States. Mr. Clarence B. Moore found a fossil llama astragalus 

 in a mound on Murphy Island, Putnam County, Florida, and a large 

 fossil astragalus, not yet identitted, in a mound on Ossabow Island, 



' Dr. Montez tolls inc that of the four ways in which a kiiii(>klt> lionc may fall, two 

 do not fonut, while one of the others wins and one loses. 



-Cat. No. 340, Field CohiiMl.iaii Musciiiii, Chicago. Montez collection. 



