112 INDIAN GAMES. 



fined to that season, it is possible that its greater hold upon 

 the affections of the Indians of the north arose from their 

 being obliged to resort to in-door amnscmcnts during the 

 protracted winters in that region. From this necessity 

 the southern Indians being in a measure exempt, they 

 continued their out-door games as usual and never became 

 so thoroughly inftituated with this game. 



Informal contests were often held between players, in 

 which the use of the bowl or platter was dispensed wath. 

 The dice were held in the hand and then tossed in the air. 

 They were allowed to fall upon some prepared surface, 

 generally a deerskin spread for the purpose. The same 

 rules as to the color of the surfaces of the dice when they 

 settled in their places governed the count. This form of 

 the game is sometimes described as a separate game. 

 Boucher^*' calls it PaquessenJ'^ The women of Oregon 

 played it with marked beaver teeth. ^^ Among the Twa- 

 nas it was played with beaver or muskrat teeth. ^^ Pow- 

 ers*'' saj^s that among the Nishinams, a tribe living on the 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada between the Yuba and Cos- 

 umnes rivers, " a game of dice is played by men or women, 

 two, three or four together. The dice, four in number, 

 consist of two acorns split lengthwise into halves, with the 

 outsidos scraped and painted red or black. They are shak- 

 en in the hand and thrown into a wide flat basket, woven 

 in ornamental patterns. One paint and three whites, or 



""True and Genuine Description of New France, etc., by Pierre Bouclier, Pnris, 

 1644. Transliited under title "Canaduia the Seventeeutli Century," Montreal, 188.J, 

 p. 57. 



'^'Played by women and girls. Sagard Theodat, Ilistoire du Canada, Vol. i, p. 

 244. 



*9Contribution8 to North American Ethnology, Vol. I, p. 20fl, George Gibfcs; 

 H. H. Bancroft's Native Races, Vol. i, p. 244; The Nortlivvest Coast by James 

 G. Swan, p. 158. 



''» Bulletin, U. S. Geological Survey. Vol. in. No. 1, April 5, 1877. liev. M. Eels. 



•° Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. Ill, p. ;J32. 



i 



