114 INDIAN GAMES. 



hand and rudely pushed down to its place. The plum 

 stones fly over several times. The stake is first put up by 

 all who wish to play. A dozen can play at once if desirable. 

 Schoolcraft^* describes still another form of the game 

 which he found among the Chippewas, in which thirteen 

 pieces or dice were used. Nine of them were of bone and 

 were fashioned in figures typifying fish, serpents, etc. 

 One side of each was painted red and had dots burned in 

 with a hot iron. The brass pieces were circular having cue 

 side convex and the other concave. The convex side 

 was bright, the concave dark or dull. The red pieces were 

 the winning pieces and each had an arithmetical value. 

 Any number of players might play. A wooden bowl, 

 curiously carved and ornamented, was used. This form 

 of the game may have been modified by contact with the 

 whites. It seems to be the most complex*'^ form in which 

 the game appears. The fact still remains however, that 

 in some form or other we find the game in use across the 

 entire breadth of the continent.^" 



STRAW^ OR INDIAN CARDS. 



The third game mentioned by Father Brebeuf was that 

 which was called straw. We have seen that the first of 

 these games called for strength, agilit^'and endurance. It 

 was as free from elements of chance as any human contest 



«« Vol. II, p. 72. 



•* See .nlsoa simpler form of the game described by Philander Prescott among 

 the Dacotas.— Sclioolcraft, Vol. iv, p. 64. The tendency of the modern Indian.s to 

 elaborate the game maybe traced in the descri})tion of "Plumstone shooting" 

 given in " Omaha Sociology" by Rev. J. Owen Dorscy. Third Annual Report of 

 the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Wash- 

 ington, 1884, p. 335. 



''" Col. James Smith describes the game among the Wyandots. xVn Account ot 

 the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James Smith, during 

 his Captivity with the Indians in the Years 1755-1759. Cincinnati, 1870, p, 46. 

 Tanner also describes it. He calls it Beg-gasah or dice. Tanner's Narrative, New 

 York, 1830, p. 114. 



