CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 897 * 



About fifteen years ago the late Rev. J. Owen Dorsey gave the fol- 

 lowing- account of a corresponding game among the Omaha: ' 



Ja"-(|;tiwii, Stick -counting, is played by any nuruber of persons with sticks made of 

 deska or sidnhi. These sticks are all placed in a heap, and then the players, in 

 succession, take up some of them in their hands. The sticks are not counted until 

 they have been taken up, and then he who has the lowest odd number always wins. 

 Thus, if one player had five, another three, and a third only one, the last must be 

 the victor. The highest number that anyone can have is nine. If ten or more 

 sticks have been taken those above nine do not count.- 



liight is thrown upon the origin and significance of these games in 

 America by the account of the Tiyotipi of the Daliota, by Stephen R. 

 Riggs.'' ''The exponent of the Phratry was the ' Tiyotipi,' or ' Soldiers' 

 Lodge.' Its meaning is the ' Lodge of Lodges.' There were placed 

 the bundles of black and red sticks of the soldiers. There the soldiers 

 gathered to talk and smoke and feast. There the laws of the encamp- 

 ment were enacted." Describing the lodge, he says: 



A good fire is blazing inside, and we may just lift up the skin-door and crawl in. 

 Toward the rear of the tent, but near enough for convenient use, is a large pipe 

 placed by the symbols of ])Ower. Tlier*- are two bundles of shaved sticks about 6 

 inches long. The sticks in one bundle arc painted black and in the other red. The 

 black bundle represeuts the real men of the camp — those who have made their mark 

 on the warp.ith. The red bundle represents the boys and such men as wear no eagle 

 feathers. 



Again he says: 



Then of all the round-shaved sticks, some of which were painted black and some 

 l)ainted red, four are especially marked. They are the four chiefs of the Tiyotipi 

 that were made. And these men are not selected at random for this place; but men 

 who have killed many enemies and are most able are chosen. 



In conclusion, Mr. Riggs adds: 



The special making of the sticks is done on the line of personal history. What- 

 ever is indicated by the kind of eagle feathei«s a man is entitled to wear in his head, 

 and by the notches in them, this is all hieroglyphed on his stick in the Tiyotipi. 

 Then these bundles of sticks are used for gambling. The question is, "Odd or 

 even?" The forfeits are paid in meat for the Tiyotipi. 



This highly suggestive account reveals the splints or straws of the 

 American games as derived from the ceremonial emblems of the war- 

 riors of the tribe. The identity of the sjilints with the Haida gambling- 

 sticks (No. 70), both in number and method of use, is clearly apparent. 



'Omaha Sociology, Third Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1884, 

 p. 338. 



-Mr. Francis Le Fleche mentioned an Omaha game to the writer under the name 

 of Zanekidd^, as played with sticks or straws, fifty-two in all. "It is pretty much 

 like card-playing." Miss Alice C. Flecker writes me that "the true name of the game 

 is zfhon-iti-Dki-de. This is an old word, and not a descriptive name, whereas the 

 name given by Mr. Dorsey is a descriptive name and only sometimes used to desig- 

 nate tliis game. The name givcTi by Mr. Dorsey, zhon-dha-a'ci, is composed of zohn, 

 "wood," and <Z/((/-)(7(, "to count." 



= Stephen Return Riggs, Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography, edited by 

 James Owen Dorsey, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain Region, Contributions to North American Ethnology, IX, pp. l'J5, 2U0. 

 NAT MUS 110 57 



