mookey] the b.V'qati game 995 



The sticks arc light rods, about 30 inches long, tied in pairs by a 

 peculiar arrangement of buckskin strings, and distinguished from one 

 another by pieces of doth of different colors fastened to the strings. 

 There is also a pile of tally sticks, usually a hundred in number, about 

 the size of lead pencils and painted green, for keeping count of the 

 game. The sticks are held near the center in a peculiar manner bet \\ ecu 

 the fingers of the closed hand. When the wheel is rolled, each player 

 runs from the same side, and endeavors to throw the sticks so as to 

 strike the wheel in such a way that when it falls both sticks of his pair 

 shall be either over or under a certain figure. It requires dexterity to 

 do this, as the string has a tendency to strike the wheel in such a way 

 as to make one stick fall under and the other over, in which case the 

 throw counts for nothing. The players assign their own value to each 

 figure, the usual value being five points for one and ten for the other 

 figure, with double that number for a throw which crosses the two 

 corresponding figures, and one hundred tallies to the game. 



The wheel-and-stick game, in some form or another, was almost uni- 

 versal among our Indian tribes. Another game among the prairie tribes 

 is played with a netted wheel and a single stick or arrow, the effort 

 being to send the arrow through the netting as nearly as possible to 

 the center or bull's-eye. This game is called ana'wati'n-hati, " playing 

 wheel," by the Arapaho. 



50. AM ASA MA \A l>\ < HAM I1ATITANI 



Aui . : i s : i kua ua da chiibi liati tani bii qati ba, 

 Ani'iisa kua na da chiibi bati'tani bii'qati ba. 

 Ni ati liiku thahu' bii qatihi, 

 Ni'ati'biku'thahu ba'qatihi. 

 I >i chiibi hiiti ta ni', 

 Di'chabi'hiiti ta ai . 



Translation 



I am watching where they are gambling with the bii qati wheel, 

 I am watching where they are gambling with the 6a qati wheel. 

 They are rolling the bii qati, 

 They are rolling the id i/ati. 

 While they gamble with it. 

 While they gamble witli it. 



In this song the dancer tells how he watched a group of his friends in 

 the spirit world playing the game of the bii'qati, as has been explained 

 in the song last treated. 



51. Ni cm a i'theti'hi 



Ni chi'a i'theti hi, 



Ni ehi a i theti hi, 

 Chana'ha'ti i'ntt — 

 Ghana ha ti i nit — 

 i in n haa -ni bina thi aku -u, 

 (in n baa -ni bina thi akn'-u. 



