swANTnxl MEDICINES AND CHARMS 445 



and if right his sick' i;('ts one nf t\w coiiiiter.s; otlierwise tliov lose one. 

 The side that g(>ts all of its opponent's counters first wins and takes all 

 that its opponents have put up. Sometimes a man would wager a 

 $50 canoe, value the games at $10 each and make his opponents win 

 five times before getting it. 



The game with the Unee-shaped die was played by the Tlingit as 

 well as by the Haida." They called the die k!itc!u' (''buttocks- 

 shape"), because the curving side resembles the curve of tiie l)uttocks. 



A game much like sliinny was played on the flats at low tide. The 

 ball was started in tlie center, and two opposing liands of players 

 tried to drive it across a line at their opponents' end of the beach. 



They also shot arrows at a stake or at an arrow in the branches of a 

 tree (see Memoirs of Amerii'an Museum of Natural History, viii, 61). 



Q.'u,rii//i/(T(/ii ('' hitting-the-wild-c'derv-liead"). Just before "wild 

 celery" of a certain kind goes to seed its head is cut oft', phu'ed on the 

 ground, and surrounded by short pieces of the plant. Then boys 

 form sides and try to spear the wild celery head with short sticks. If 

 one succeeds his side wins, and if he hits a piece of celery he takes it 

 over, but if he misses he Icses his arrow. The celery head is called 

 the "porpoise," from its supposed resemblance to that animal. 



Q!V(hi. Four rolls of wild grass about 3 inches in diameter l)ut of 

 differing lengths are twisted, and four corresponding ditches are 

 made in the ground to stop them. Then boys form sides, and, while 

 one starts the grass rolls forward, the opponents, standing some dis- 

 tance back from the latter, tr}'^ to spear them with short sticks before 

 thev reach the trenches. The other side rolls in a similar manner, and 

 then they see which has made the more hits. The side which has 

 come out ahead receives as man}' sticks from its opponents as it has 

 made hits; the game is 20 points. This and the preceding game were 

 both used for gambling. 



Sijxiirrel game. A pole is set up and a stick fastened at the toj) of 

 it at right angles, so that the two have the shape of an inverted L. 

 At the outer end of the second stick a figure is fastened supposed to 

 represent the squirrel, and the boys shoot at this by sides with sharp 

 arrows, (icenerally boys of the Raven clan play against the Wolves. 



Children us(^d to amuse tluMnselves also l)y catching humming birds 

 on gummed blankets and by enticing bats to a torch waved back and 

 forth, where they were knocked down. Birds were shot witii both 

 sharp and blunt-pointed arrows. 



MEDICINES AND CHARMS 



As usual among Indians, the potency of medicines depended rather 

 on supernatural than on medicinal properties, and their functions 

 were fully as much to obtain positive advantages as to counteract 



aSeeTwenty-fourlli Kcpcirt of \\w Biironii nf Americnii KthnnloRy. 189-190. 



