78 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTIIUTE. 



[Vol. YL 



Fig. 62 represents the Tsi[Koh'tin and fig. 68 the Tse'kehne equivalent 

 of the Babine gambhng sticks. It will be seen from the latter that the 

 Tse'kehne, who are the most primitive and uncultured of the three tribes 

 whose technology is under review, are again the only people who in this 

 connection, as with regard to their spoons, have made the merest attempt 

 at bone carving. 



Fig. 67. 



Fig. 68. }4 size. 



The game played with these bone pieces is, I think, too well known to 

 demand a description. The jerking movements and passes of hands of 

 the party operating therewith, as well as the drum beating and the sing- 

 ing of the spectators or partners, are practised among most of the Indian 

 races, especially of the Pacific Coast, which have occupied the attention 

 of American ethnologists. The Abbe Petitot says in one of his latest 

 publications* that this game is adventitious among the Eastern Denes 

 who have borrowed it from the Cree.s. This remark is no less apposite 

 with regard to their kinsmen west of the Rocky Mountains. Although 

 no other chance game possesses to-day so many charms for the frivolous 

 Western Denes, the old men assure me that it was formerly unknown 

 among their fellow countrymen. That their testimony is based on fact, 

 the very name of that game would seem to indicate, since it is a mere 

 verb in the impersonal mood : udfsd'a, " one keeps in the hand while 

 moving," and is therefore of the fourth category of Dene nouns. The 

 word for "gambling sticks," such as used in connection with nat'so'a, is 

 n3'ta, which is the same verb under the potential form and means " that 

 which can be held in the hand." Any of the surrounding races, 

 Tsimpsian, Salishan or Algonquin, may be held responsible for its intro- 

 duction among the Western Denes, for they are all exceedingly fond 

 of it. 



The original counterpart of the modern nat'sa'a was the atliJi,'\ which 



*I think it is in his book En route pour la Mer Glaciale, Parts, 1888. 

 t May be translated by "Gambling" in a general sense. 



