MURDOCH.] 



TOYS. 



379 



of sinew braid about 1 toot long to the end of a slender rod, which 

 serves as a handle. When swung rapidly round by the handle it 



makes a loud, whiz/ing sound. It 

 is very neatly made, and painted 

 with black lead and red ocher. 

 The tips of the board are black 

 for about one-half inch and the 

 rest is red, and the upper half of 

 the handle marked with five rings 

 about one-half inch wide and 1 

 inch apart, alternately black and 

 red. This appears to be purely 

 a child s toy and has no mystical 

 signification. I never saw one in 

 the hands of an adult. This speci 

 men was made and brought over 

 for sale by a lad about thirteen 

 or fourteen years old. 



Fig. 378 (No. 506S7 [181] from 

 Utkiavwlii) is another plaything 

 rather common with the boys, 

 which takes the place of the 

 American boy s &quot;bean snapper.&quot; 

 It is known by the name of miti - 

 gllgaun, and is a rod of 

 whalebone, stiff and 

 black, 4-8 inches long 

 and 0-3 wide, narrowed 

 and bent sharply up for 

 about an inch at one 

 end. On the upper side 

 of this end, close to the 



tip, is a little hollow, large enough to hold a small pebble, 

 and the other is cut into sharp teeth. This is purely an instru- 2 

 ment of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at peo 

 ple when they are looking the other way. Miifiialu showed 

 us, with great glee, in an expressive pantomime, how a boy 

 would hit a person in the eye with a little pebble, and, when 

 the man turned round angrily, would have the snapper slipped 

 up his sleeve and be \poking earnestly in another direction. 

 The toothed end, he said, was for mischievously scratching 

 hairs out of a man s coat when he was looking another way. 

 The &quot;snapper&quot; is used as follows: It is held in the left hand, 

 a little pebble is set in the socket, and the tip of the whalebone bent 

 back with the right hand. When this end is let go the elasticity of 

 the whalebone drives the pebble at the mark with considerable force. 

 As far as I can learn this mischievous toy is peculiar to the Northwest. 



Km. 377. Whining si ii-k. 



FIG. :!78. 



IVIililc miap- 



per. 



