CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 907 



game is to guess in which of the two bundles of sticks, which iire wrapped in cedar 

 bark, the trump is hidden. Each player uses one trump only. 



Another ai^pareutly similar game he describes as follows: 

 MaUqd'n. — About thirty small maple sticks are divided into four or five lots of 

 unequal numbers. After a first glance one of the players is blindfolded, the others 

 change tbe order of the lots, and the first player must guess how many sticks are 

 now in each lot. When he guesses right in three, four, or five guesses out of ten — 

 according to the agreement of the ])layer8 — he has won. 



The sets of sticks are almost uniformly contained in a leather pouch, 

 with a broad flap, to which a long thong is attached, passing several 

 times around the pouch and having a pointed strip of bone, horn, or 

 ivory at the end. The latter is slipped under the thong as a fastening. 

 These sticks, which are used by several of the tribes of the northwest 

 coast of America, are probably simply conventionalized shaftments of 

 arrows, as will be seen by comparing them with the arrows of the 

 McCloud Eiver Indians (N^o. 75). Fig. 217 represents the cut shaftment 

 of an actual arrow, still bearing bands of red paint, found among the 

 debris of a clitf dwelling in Mancos Canyon, which Mr. Gushing regards 

 as having been intended for a game in the manner of the sticks. 



CUT ARROW SHAFTMENT. 



LeDgtb, 6 inches. 

 Cliff dwelling in Mancos Canyon, Colorado. 



Museum of Archjeology, University of Pennsyh'ania. 



From the account of the sticks used among the Dakota (p. 897), to 

 which the Northwest Coast sticks are analogous, it seems probable that 

 each stick in a set stands, or originally stood, for a warrior of the 

 tribe. It will be seen from the sticks collected by Lieutenant Emmons 

 that they are designated by what api)ear to be the names of thegentes. 

 Comparison of the sticks herein described show that no two sets are 

 exactly alike,' a variation whicli, under the circumstances, would be 

 natural. Through the courtesy of Dr. Franz Boas, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York City, I am able to give the fol- 

 lowing list of two sets of sticks'- in that museum, collected and labeled 

 by Lieut. George T. Emmons, U. S. N., which are of the highest impor- 

 tance in their study. By reference to Gibb's Vocabularies, it appears 

 they were obtained from the Taku tribe of the Koluschan family, occu- 

 pying Taku Inlet, Alaska. ' Tliey are catalogued under the name of 

 Alh-lcar, from Sitka. 



' There is a general agreement in the red and black ribbons, but the number and 

 arrangement of these varies on the sticks in each set. Several sticks marked alike 

 frequently occur, as in the named seta collected by Lieutenant Emmons. All of the 

 painted sets contain sticks like those in these two sets. 



-My attention was called to these sticks by my friend Mr. Cushing, who kindly 

 placed his drawings of them at my disposal. 



■'United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Kocky Mountain 

 Region. Contributions to North .Vimrican Ethnology, I, p. 121. 



