cULIN] DICE GAMES: MICMAC 79 
inches in length: etyamuawel, flat sticks, with a broadening at one end; (2) 
kidémé-ank, thin, cylindric sticks, about double the thickness of lucifer matches. 
The etyamuawel, plural (@)tyamuawel, slender sticks, are also called “ five 
pointers,” because their broadening end shows five notches or points, showing 
their value as counters, each rep- 
resenting five kidémaé-ank. The 
ones sent you are made of bamboo 
obtained from the West Indies, 
hence called kestisk, plural kesus- 
kel. On one of the tyamuawel the 
end has a double set of notches, the 
whole resembling a diminutive ar- 
row. It is called the old man; 
gisigi, plural gisigik. With this 
last one tyamuawel are to the 
number of four. At the final ac- 
counting each of the tyamuawel 
counts 5 points, and it is the privi- 
lege of the one who gets the old 
man to get 5 points more than the 
others, under the condition that his 
previous gain exceed 15 points. 
athe GLI Tals OF SO Fic. 68—Platter for dice (obverse); diameter, 104 
counters, are fifty-one in number, inches; Miemae Indians, Nova Scotia; cat. no. 
cylindric, and of the same length as 21642, Free Museum of Science and Art, University 
the tyamuawel. Some of those be- of Pennsylvania. 
fore you are of snati, or rock-maple, 
the others of bamboo. Their number is determined by the fact that three times 
seventeen makes fifty-one, and each three of them represents 1 point in the game. 
Fig. 69—Counting sticks for dice; length, 9} inches, Micmac Indians, Nova Scotia; cat. no. 21642, 
Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania. 
Some of the rules observed in this truly aboriginal game are as follows, accord- 
ing to James Meuse: 
Any player in the ring can have three throws of the dice. When, after shak- 
ing the waltes on a table or on the mat, all the dice, or altest4-ank, turn their 
white or black side up, the player gets 1 etyamuawetl, or 5 points, or 15 kidéméa- 
ank. When, after the shake, two altesté-ank turn their marked side up, the 
Player gets no counter, or kid@émaé-an. When one altesté-an turns up with the 
marked side up, the player gets 1 point, or 3 kidémé-ank. 
When five dice turn their marked side up and one the blank side, the player 
makes 1 point, or 3 kid@émé-ank. When the player finds all six dice with the 
marked side up he wins 15 counters, or 5 points. 
