840 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



26. Dominoes.' Eskimo. Labrador, North America. 



Flat pieces of ivory, cut in irregular shapes, marked on one face with 

 spots arranged in different patterns. The number of pieces in a set 

 varies from sixty to one hundred and forty-eight. 



According to Mr. Lucien M. Turner, by whom they were collected, 

 the game is played in the following manner: 



Two or more persons, according to the number of pieces in the set, sit down and 

 pile the pieces before them. One of the players mixes the pieces together in plain 

 view of the others. When this is done, he calls them to take the pieces. Each 

 person endeavors to obtain a half or third of the number, if there be two or three 

 players. The one who mixed up the ])ieces lays down a piece and calls his opponent 

 to match it with a piece having a similar design. If this can not be done by any of 

 the players, the first has to match it, and the game continues until one of the players 

 has exhausted all of the pieces taken by hiui. The pieces are designed in pairs, having 

 names such as ka miu tik (sled), laiak (canoe), kaU aak (navel), a ma znt (many), a tail 

 s'ik (1), md kok (2), ping a sut (3), si tn mut (4), and id U mat (5). Each of the names 

 above must be matched wdth a piece of similar kind, although the other end of the 

 piece may be of a different design. A kamiitik may be matched with an amazut, if 

 the latter has not a line or bar cut across it ; if it has a bar, it must be matched with 

 an amazut. 



This game is known to the people of the Ungava district, but those only who 

 learn it fiom Northerners are able to play it. The northern Eskimo stake the 

 last article they possess on the issue of the game. Their wives are disposed of tem- 

 porarily, and often are totally relinquished to the victor. I have heard of wives so 

 disposed of often sit down and win themselves back to their foi'mcr owners. 



The game appears to have been borrowed from European rather than 

 Asiatic sources. 



Another set of Eskimo dominoes (Plate 27), difffering in their marks 

 from the preceding, is contained in the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York City (Cat. No. t^vt)- It was collected by Capt. 

 George Comer from the Central Eskimo of Savage Islands, West Coast 

 of Hudson Bay, and consists of thirty- six pieces of ivory marked with 

 dots, running irregularly from eight on one side down to blank. It is 

 clearly a degenerate form of the European game. 



27. CHONa UN Ch'au. Game of the Chief of the Literati. Canton, 



China. Tallies and dice.^ 



Chong un ch^au is played with tallies, cWau, the highest of which is 

 called chong ibi, the name given the Optimus at the examinations for 

 the degree of Hanlin, whence I have styled it "The Game of the Chief 

 of the Literati." Two or more persons maj^ play, using six dice and 

 sixty-three bamboo tallies. The players throw in turn from right to 

 left, and after throwing each draws the tally he is entitled to for his 

 throw. 



This game is in many respects analogous to the Game of Promotion 



' Cat. No. 76880, U.S.N.M. Chinese Games with Dice and Dominoes, plate 12, Re- 

 port U, S. Nat. Mus., 1893, p. 529, 



2 Cat. No. 25.539, U.S.N.M. Gift of Stewart Culin. Chinese Games with Dice and 

 Dominoes, plate 3, Report U. S. Nat. Mus., 1893, p. 196. 



