520 INDIANS. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 



GAMBLING. 



THE Indians are excessively fond of gambling. The old 

 games so often described are generally discarded, all the 

 tribes being sufficiently civilised to possess and understand 

 cards. Those who come in contact with Mexicans are 

 well up in all the mysteries of ' monte.' Those who are 

 civilised on reservations acquire a knowledge of ' poker ' 

 and ' seven up,' sufficient for all practical purposes, in 

 a quarter the time it would take them to learn the 

 alphabet. 



The wilder tribes invent games for themselves, and 

 play with considerable skill. All Indians are arrant 

 cheats at cards, and as dexterous in concealing their 

 manipulations as a ' three-card monte dealer.' Women 

 play also, but I have rarely seen them playing with men. 

 Having but little to lose, or work to do, their sittings are 

 not protracted. The bucks play from morning till night, 

 and from night to morning again. In the winter camps 

 scarcely anything else is done. The stakes are high for 

 a poor people. I have myself looked on at a game 

 between two Arrapalioe chiefs where, it was said, for I 

 could not understand, 120 dollars depended on a single 

 hand. They are possessed of the true gambler's passion, 

 and will, if in bad luck, lose ponies, lodge, arms, robes, 

 blankets, and, finally, wives, and even children (though 

 this is now rare). I have, however, known, some 

 twenty years ago, more than one case among the Co- 

 manches where an unlucky gambler lost wife, children, 



