94 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [E&TH. ann. 24 
they fall into it. The counts are agreed upon in advance, and follow 
the order displayed in figure 94. 
Navano. New Mexico. (Cat. no. 9557, United States National Mu- 
seum. ) ; 
Set of three sticks of root of cottonwood, 8 inches in length, about 13 
inches in breadth, 
Z and one-half inch 
in thickness, one 
side flat and black- 
ened, the other 
rounded and un- 
painted (figure 
95); one stick tied 
near the end to 
Fic. 95. Stick dice; length, 8 inches; Navaho Indians, New prevent splitting. 
Mexico; cat. no. 9557, United States National Museum. 
They show marks 
of continued use. Collected by Dr Edward Palmer. 
As observed by the writer at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 
the Navaho play on a circle of forty stones, throwing the staves ends 
down upon a flat stone placed in the center. Each player has a 
splint or twig to represent him upon the board, and these are all 
placed together at one 
of the four openings 
in the circle at the 
commencement of the 
game. The throws 
count as follows: 
Three round side up 
counts 10; three flat, 
5; two rounds and 
one flat, 0; one round 
and two flat, 0. The 
following vocabulary 
of the game was fur- 
nished me by a Navy- 
aho at Chicago: The 
game, set-tilth; the 
Fie. 96. Navaho Indian women playing stick dice, St Michael, 
staves, set-tilth ; the Arizona; from photograph by Rey. Berard Haile. 
circle of stones, sen-asti; the stone in the center, a-cle-sane. 
Dr Washington Matthews* describes a game played by Navaho 
women under the name of tsidil or tsindil: 
The principal implements are three sticks, which are thrown violently, ends 
down, on a flat stone around which the gamblers sit. The sticks rebound so 
* Navajo Legends, note 47, p. 219, Boston, 1897. 
