CULIN] DICE GAMES: SENECA LS 
The day before the game is played six men are sent around to collect’ from 
the people such things as they care to stake in the peach-stone game. The goods 
collected—usually wearing apparel—are placed in two piles, the articles being 
fastened together in pairs with regard to the four brothers’ end and the two 
brothers’ end. Two men are selected to call out the male players, and, simi- 
larly, two women to call out the female players. 
During the game the players are greeted with loud and enthusiastie shouts 
or with yells of derision, while the opposing player makes comments and grim- 
aces, hoping thus to distract the attention of his or her rival. 
Public gambling is permitted by the Iroquois only at the midwinter and fall 
festivals. 
Seneca. New York. 
Morgan? describes the Iroquois game, under the name of gusga- 
esati, or deer buttons: 
This was strictly a fireside game, although it was sometimes introduced as an 
amusement at the season of religious councils, the people dividing into tribes as 
usual and betting upon the result. Eight buttons, about an inch in diameter, 
were made of elk horn, and, having been rounded and polished, were slightly 
Fig. 116. Bone dice; Seneca Indians, New York; from Morgan. 
burned upon one side to blacken them [figure 116]. When it was made a public 
game it was played by two at a time, with a change of players as elsewhere de- 
scribed in the peach-stone game. At the fireside it was played by two or more, 
and all the players continued in their seats until it was determined. A certain 
number of beans, fifty, perhaps, were made the capital, and the game continued 
until one of the players had won them all. Two persons spread a blanket and 
seated themselves upon it. One of them shook the deer buttons in his hands and 
then threw them down. If six turned up of the same color, it counted 2; if 
seven, it counted 4; and if all, it counted 20, the winner taking as many beans 
from the general stock as he made points by the throw. He also continued to 
throw as long as he continued to win. When less than six came up, either black 
or white, it counted nothing, and the throw was passed to the other player. In 
this manner the game was continued until the beans were taken up between the 
two players. After that the one paid to the other out of his own winnings, the 
game ending as soon as the capital in the hands of either player was exhausted. 
If four played, each had a partner or played independently, as they were dis- 
posed; but when more than two played, each one was to pay the winner the 
“League of the Iroquois, p. 302, Rochester, 1851. 
24 ETH—05 M 8 
