136 INDIAN GAMES. 



bark, in Avhich be envelops tbcm, and after rolbng tbem 

 about, tears the bundle into two parts, his opponent guess- 

 ing in which bundle the chief lies."'^^ The same game is 

 described by Kane, except that the counters, instead of be- 

 ing wrapped in one bundle which is afterward torn in two, 

 are originally wrapped in two bundles. ^^^ 



Still another complication of the guessing game was de- 

 scribed by Mayne.^^^ Blankets were spread upon the ground 

 on which sawdust was spread about an inch thick. In 

 this was placed the counter, a piece of bone or iron about 

 the size of a half a crown, and one of the players shuffled 

 it about, the others in turn guessing where it was. 



The game of "moccasin" was but a modification of this 

 game. As described by Philander Prescott three mocca- 

 sins were used in this game by the Dacotas. The bone or 

 stick was slipped from one to another of the moccasins 

 by the manipulators, and the others had to guess in which 

 moccasin it was to be found. Simple as this description 

 seems, the men would divide into sides, playing against 

 each other, and accompanying the game with singing. ^^ 



Among the Zunis, the guessing game was exalted to the 

 nature of a sacred festival. Frank H. Gushing"^ gives the 

 following account of its practice. "One morning the two 

 chief priests of the bow climbed to the top of the houses, 

 and just at sunrise called out a 'prayer message' from the 

 mount-environed gods. Eight players went into a kli- 

 ivi-tain to fast, and four days later issued forth, bearing 

 four large wooden tubes, a ball of stone, and a bundle of 

 thirty-six counting straws. With great ceremony, many 



'SO Contributions to Nortli American Ethnology, Gibbs, Vol. i, p. 200. 

 137 Kane's Wanderings, p. 189; Swan's Nortliwest Coast, p. 157; Kels iu Bulletin 

 U. S. G. Surv., Vol. Ill, No, 1. 



i'" Mayne's British Columbia, [>• 275. 



"» Schoolcniit, Vol. IV, p. (U; Domenech, Vol. ii, p. 192. 



''"The Century, Vol. xxvi, p. 37. 



