CULIN] DICE GAMES: SENECA 15 
When the betting was ended, and the articles had been delivered into the cus- 
tody of the managers, they seated themselves upon the platform in the midst of 
the throng of spectators, and two persons sat down to the game between the 
two divisions into which they arranged themselves. The beans, in the first 
instance, were placed together in a bank. Five of them were given each player, 
with which they commenced. Each player, by the rules of the game, was 
allowed to keep his seat until he had lost this outfit, after which he surrendered 
it to another player on his own side selected by the managers of his own party. 
And this was the case, notwithstanding any number be might have won of his 
adversary. Those which he won were delivered to his party managers. The 
six peach stones were placed in the bowl and shaken by the player: if five of 
them came up of one color, either white or black, it counted 1, and his adversary 
paid to him the forfeit, which was one bean, the bean simply representing a unit 
in counting the game. On the next throw, which the player having won, re- 
tained, if less than five came up of the same color it counted nothing, and he 
passed the bowl to his adversary. The second player then shook the bowl, upon 
which, if they all came up of one color, either white or black, it counted five. 
To pay this forfeit required the whole outfit of the first player, after which, 
having nothing to pay with, he vacated his seat and was succeeded by another of 
his own side, who received from the bank the same number of beans which the 
first had. The other player followed his throw as long as he continued to win, 
after which he repassed the bowl to his adversary. If a player chanced to win 
five and his opponent had but one left, this was all he could gain. In this manner 
the game continued with varying fortune until the beans were divided between 
the two sides in proportion to their success. After this the game continued in 
the same manner as before, the outfit of each new player being advanced by the 
managers of his own party; but as the beans or counters were now out of sight, 
none but the managers knew the state of the game with accuracy. In playing 
it there were but two winning throws, one of which counted 1 and the other 5. 
When one of the parties had lost all their beans, the game was done. 
Morgan,’ referring to games generally, says: 
In their national games is to be found another fruitful source of amusement 
in Indian life. These games were not only played at their religious festivals, 
at which they often formed a conspicuous part of the entertainment, but special 
days were set frequently apart for their celebration. They entered into these 
diversions with the highest zeal and emulation, and took unwearied pains to per- 
fect themselves in the art of playing each successfully. There were but six 
principal games among the Iroquois, and these were divisible into athletic games 
and games of chance. 
Challenges were often sent from one village to another, and were even 
exchanged between nations, to a contest of some of these games. In such cases 
the chosen players of each community or nation were called out to contend for 
the prize of victory. An intense degree of excitement was aroused when the 
champions were the most skillful players of rival villages or adjacent nations. 
The people enlisted upon their respective sides with a degree of enthusiasm which 
would have done credit both to the spectators and the contestants at the far- 
famed Elian games. For miles, and even hundreds of miles, they flocked 
together at the time appointed to witness the contest. 
Unlike the prizes of the Olympic games, no chaplets awaited the victors. 
They were strifes between nation and nation, village and village, or tribe and 
tribe; in a word, parties against parties, and not champion against champion. 
@ League of the Iroquois, p. 291, Rochester, 1851. 
