oa THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
toy sled. In the background is the shelter over the entrance of the 
tunnel leading to the interior of the half-underground house, the roof of 
which appears like a mound on the right. 
During one of my sledge journeys I was storm-bound at Cape Darby, 
near Bering strait, and during the day an old man in the house where 
I stopped amused me by the ingenuity with which he made intricate 
patterns of cord, holding the loop between his extended hands after the 
manner of children making a “cat’s cradle.” For an hour or more he 
made a constant succession of patterns with his sinew cord, forming 
outlines of various birds and other animals of the region. The readi- 
ness with which he wove the strings in and out showed that his dex- 
terity must have been gained by long practice. I also heard of this 
form of amusement among the Eskimo along the coast southward to the 
mouth of the Kuskokwim. 
The following games are in common use throughout this region: 
First GAME—(St Michael). A round block about 6 inches long is 
cut into the form of a large spool, but with the flaring rim of one end 
replaced by a sharpened point. The top is from 24 to 3 inches across 
and has a deep hole in the center. This spool-like object is planted in 
the floor of the kashim with the large end upward, and an indefinite 
number of players gather around it seated cross-legged on the floor. 
Near the spool is a small pile of short sticks, of uniform size, used as 
counters. These, with a small, pointed wooden dart, in size and shape 
almost exactly like a sharpened Jead pencil, compose the implements of 
the game. The first player takes the butt of the dart between the 
thumb and forefinger, with its point upward and his hand nearly on a 
level with the spool. Then he gives the dart a deft upward toss, trying 
to cause it to take a curved course, so that it will fall with the point 
downward and remain fast in the hole at the top of the spool. If he 
succeeds he takes one of the counting sticks from the pile and tries 
again; when he misses, the dart is passed to the next player, and so 
on, until the counters are all gone, when the players count up and the 
one having the most counters is the winner. Ordinarily this game is 
played by men, women, or children merely for pastime, but sometimes 
small articles are staked upon the outcome. It is a source of much 
sport to the players, who banter and laugh like school children at each 
other’s bad play. 
SECOND GAME—(St Michael). A bundle of from fifty to seventy- 
five small, squared, wooden splints, about 4 inches long and a little 
larger than a match, are placed in a small pile crosswise on the back of 
the player’s outstretched right hand. The player then removes his 
hand quickly and tries to grasp the falling sticks between his thumb and 
fingers, still keeping the palm downward. If one or more of the sticks 
fall to the ground it is a miss and the next player tries. Every time a 
player succeeds in catching all of the falling sticks, he lays aside one 
of them as a counter until all are gone, when each player counts up and 
