134 INDIAN GAMES. 



it, the opposite party being required to guess in which hand 



the marked stick is to be found. A Chinook will play 



at this simple game for days and nights together, until he 



has gambled away everything he possesses, even to his 

 wife>i^2 



Among the Utahs this form of the game was common : 

 'JA row of players consisting of five or six or a dozen men 

 is arranged on either side of the ten^ facing each other. 

 Before each man is placed a bundle of small twigs or sticks 

 each six or eight inches in length and pointed at one end. 

 Every tete-a-tete couple is provided with two cylindrical 

 bone dice carefully fashioned and highly polished which 

 measure about two inches in length and half an inch in di- 

 ameter, one being white and the other black, or sometimes 

 ornamented with a black band." At the rear, musicians 

 were seated who during the game beat upon rude drums. ^^'^ 

 In this game it will be noticed that the players paired off 

 and apparently each man played for himself. 



Still another element is introduced in another form of 

 the game, which increases the opportunity afforded the one 

 who manipulates the bones for dexterity. This form of 

 the game is repeatedly alluded to by Powers. While relat- 

 ing the habits and customs of the Gualala, whose homes 

 were near Fort Ross, he describes what he calls the gam- 

 bling game of "wi and tep^' and says that one description 

 with slight variations will answer for nearly all the tribes of 

 central and southern California. After describmg the mak- 

 ing up of the pool of stakes, he adds : "They gamble with 

 four cylinders of bone about tAvo inches long, two of which 

 are plain, and two marked with rings and strings tied round 

 the middle. The game is conducted by four old and ex- 



>" See also, Overland, Vol. ix, p. 163, Powers; H. H. Bancroft's Native Races, 

 Vol. I, i>. 24^1; Clay balls are sometimes nsert, Ibid, Vol. I,p..'?53; Tlie Northwest 

 Coast, James G. Swan, p. 158; Montana as it is, Granville Stuart, p. 71. 



"a Edwin R. Barker in tlie Ameiican Naturalist, June, 1S77, Vol. XI, p. 051. 



