126 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [eru. ann. 24 
their passage around the circle the two awls get into the same division, the 
last comer is said to whip or kill the former, who forfeits a counter and is 
set back to the beginning. The counting continues until one gets back to the 
ereek at 8. The one first at S receives a counter, and if there is more than 
enough to take it to the creek the surplus is added to the next round; that 
is, the creek is jumped, and the awl put beyond it as many points as may be 
over. When one side wins all the counters, it conquers. If the game should 
be broken up before this event the side which has the greater number of 
counters is victor. 
Colonel Scott further states: 
The Kiowa have a custom of wetting the fingers and slapping them several 
times on the stone before a throw, and calling out “red, red,” or “ white, 
white,” according to the number they desire to count; or, if but “one” should 
be required to throw the opposite party into the “ creek,’ some one puts her 
finger into her mouth, and, drawing it carefully across the top of the stone, 
ealls out “ parko, parko” (“one, one”). Often before the throw the thrower 
will rub the four sticks in a vertical position backward and forward several 
times between the palms of the hands, to insure good luck. 
The Comanche have a similar game which they play with eight ahl sticks, 
and the Cheyenne and Arapaho are said to have a game which they play with 
ahl sticks which are 2 feet or more long. 
Kiowa. Oklahoma. (Cat. no. 152908a, United States National 
Museum. ) 
Set of four sticks of willow wood, 7 inches in length, three-eighths of 
an inch in width, and three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, 
nearly hemispherical in section, with one side flat, and having a 
deep groove. 
The stick is doubtless a substitute for the cane, like that used by 
the Zuni, as suggested by Mr Cushing. Three of the grooves are 
painted red, these sticks having two oblique marks burnt across the 
grooved face near each end. The fourth stick has the groove painted 
black, with three lines burnt across the middle in addition to those 
at the ends. Its rounded reverse is marked with a star in the center, 
composed of four crossed lines burnt in the wood. The rounded 
sides of the others are plain. 
The collector, Mr James Mooney, prefaces his account of the 
game with the following song, employed in the ghost dance: 
Hise’ hi, hise’ hi, 
Hi’ tine’ biku’ tha’ na, 
Ha’ tine’ baku’ tha’ na, 
Haiti’ ta-u’ seta’ na, 
Hiiti’ ta-u’ seta’ na. 
My comrade, my comrade, 
Let us play the awl game, 
Let us play the awl game, 
Let us play the dice game, 
Let us play the dice game. 
“The Ghost Dance Religion. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 
pt. 2, p. 1002, 1896. 
