cULIN] DICE GAMES: KERES 123 
ka-wi-su-kuts.2 The stones number 40, and are divided into tens by openings 
ealled doors or gates called si-am-ma; the doors are placed north, south, east, 
and west. 
In the center of the circle is placed a flat stone, upon which are thrown the 
three counters. These are flat pieces of wood about 4 inches long, one-half of 
an inch wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick, painted black on one side, and 
marked with two, three, and ten marks, respectively. The counters are firmly 
grasped with the ends down and forcibly thrown, ends down, on the stone in 
the center in such a manner that they will rebound, and the marks, if any are 
uppermost, are counted, and the player lays his marker, a small stick like a 
pencil, between the stones the proper distance 
from the starting point, to record the number. 1.0! 6) OF OF © OC 0.0. © 
The starting point is one of the doors, which- fo) O° 
ever is selected, and the game is played by O S 
any number that can assemble around the 
cirele. A player can go around the circle in 2 ° 
either direction, but if another player arrives © Be ie) 
at the same point he kills the previous player, O fe) 
and that one is obliged to go back to the start- 0 ro) 
ing point; the first one making the circuit suc- O O 
eessfully wins the game, which is generally a 5 
played for a small stake. The game is modi- 
fied sometimes by ruling that if a player falls 29° 00000000 
into one of the doors he must go back, but in Fie. 130. Circuit for stick-dice game, 
this case the player is not obliged to go back if | Keres Indians, Sia, New Mexico; 
another happens to mark as many points as he. ano Pe eae 
Sometimes a round stone is painted to resemble a face and has a wreath of 
evergreens placed around it and is used as a mascot; it is placed to one side 
of the circle and is appealed to by the players to give them good numbers; 
this mascot is generally called kfim-mfishk-ko-yo, a traditional fairy, or witch. 
The name means the old spider woman. 
Keres. Sia, New Mexico. 
Mrs Matilda Coxe Stevenson’ gives a description of the game as 
played by the Sia under the name of wash’kasi, of which the follow- 
ing isan abstract: 
Forty pebbles form a square, ten pebbles on a side, with a flat stone in the 
center of the square [figure 130]. Four flat blocks, painted black on one side 
and unpainted on the other, are held vertically and dropped upon the stone. 
The counts are as follows: Four painted sides up, 10; four unpainted sides up, 
6; three painted sides up, 3; two painted sides up, 2; one painted side up, —. 
The players move in opposite directions, both starting at one of the corners. 
The game is described as the first of four games played by Po’shaiyiinne, the Sia 
culture hero, with the tribal priest. The stake was the latter’s house in the 
north. The second of the four games is of the bowl class, which I have included 
in this series. The stake in this game was the ti’imoni, or priest’s. house in 
the west. It was played with six 2-inch cubes, which were highly polished 
and painted on one side. These were tossed up in a large bowl held with each 
hand. When three painted sides are up, the game is won; with only two 
painted sides up, the game is lost. Six painted sides up is equivalent to a march 
in euchre. The games that followed were, first, a game played with four sticks 
with hollow ends, under one of which a pebble was hidden. This was played 
* Meaning a punch, or sudden blow, the only name the Lagunas have for it. 
>The Sia. Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 60, 1894. 
