78 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [2TH. Ann. 24 
the lower side, as shown in the figure, and fifty-five counting 
sticks (figure 69) made of bamboo, fifty-one plain and four 
notched, as described below. 
These were collected by Dr A. 5S. Gatschet, who obtained them 
from James Meuse, chief of the western counties Indians of Nova 
Scotia. Meuse claimed that the dish was 300 years old, and, though 
this is an exaggeration, one can clearly see that it is of old manu- 
facture. : 
Doctor Gatschet furnished the following account of the game:4 
The dice, altestéa-an—in the plural, altesté-ank—are disk-shaped, flat above 
and convex below, six in number. They always make them of white bone, and 
since the caribou furnishes the hardest 
bone, they use the bone of this animal 
only for the purpose. The caribou 
is still frequent in the woods of Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick, and is called 
xalibi’—in Quoddy, megali’sp—from its 
UG OTe Borie dicantdiamnctaraginche MiG: habit of shoveling the snow with its 
mac Indians, Nova Scotia: cat. no. 21642, forelegs, which is done to find the food 
Free Museum of Science and Art, Uni- covered by the snow. yalibai’ mulyadéget 
versity of Pennsylvania. (Miemac), “the caribou is scratching or 
shoveling.” The bone dice are made smooth by rubbing them on a_ stone, 
subigidé-an, whetstone, honing stone; subigidegef, any object whetted or honed. 
The dish, or wiltes, is a heavy platter made of a piece of rock-maple wood, and 
appears to have no other purpose than to jerk altestaé-ank up and receive them 
when falling down. This is done either by striking the dish upon a table or 
upon a mat lying on the ground. The rock-maple tree is still found in all 
the hard-wood ridges of Nova Scotia, and where this useful tree is getting 
scarce the Nova Scotia white people begin to rear it, as they do also the nimé- 
nohen, or yellow birch; the axamntx, or white ash; the wisx6k, or black ash; the 
midi, or common poplar. When the dish is made of birch bark it is called ula’n, 
plural ulanel. The Micmac make birch-bark canoes for Annapolis basin, just 
as in ancient times, and the price they now get for them is $15 to $25. 
The waltes sent to you is made from a piece of rock-maple about one-half 
inch thick, diameter about 1 foot, and wholly carved with a knife, no ma- 
ehinery having been used. The top side is slightly concave and the bottom 
conspicuously convex. As the biggest rock-maple trees do not exceed 20 inches 
in thickness, the waltes was evidently made from one side of the tree and not 
from across. The wood is cross-grained and extremely smooth, the nerves 
(opyoxt) of the tree being just perceptible. Round and elliptic figures are 
carved on the top and bottom side, but have no significance for the game itself. 
The rubbing smooth or polishing of the wood is called sesubadéy by the Indians ; 
it has the same effect as sandpaper rubbing with us. 
The altesté-ank, or dice, are blank on the convex side and carved with A 
figures on the flat side, which converge in the center. The game itself is 
altestai; they (two) play the dice game, altestayek; they (more than two) 
play the dice game, altestadiyek. 
The counters of this game are of two kinds, both being sticks about 7 to 8 
«Bulletin of the Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania, y. 2, p. 
191, Philadelphia, 1900. 
