CULIN] DICE GAMES: KIOWA Ure 
The woman who composed this song tells how, on waking up in the spirit 
world, she met there a party of her former girl companions and sat down with 
them to play the two games universally popular with the prairie tribes. 
The first is called né’biku’thana by the Arapaho and tsoni, or awl game 
(from tson, an awl) by the Kiowa, on account of an awl, the Indian woman's 
substitute for a needle, being used to keep record of the score. The game is 
becoming obsolete in the north, but it is the everyday summer amusement of 
the women among the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache in the southern plains. 
It is very amusing on account of the unforeseen rivers and whips that are 
constantly turning up to disappoint the expectant winner, and a party of 
* women will frequently sit around the blanket for half a day at a time with a 
constant ripple of laughter and good-humored jokes as they follow the chances 
of the play. It would make a very pretty picnic game, or could be readily 
adapted to the parlor of civilization. 
The players sit on the ground around a blanket marked in charcoal with 
lines and dots and quadrants in the corners, as shown in figure [133]. In the 
center is a stone upon which the sticks are thrown. Each dot, excepting those 
between the parallels, counts a point, making 24 points for dots. Each of the 
parallel lines and each end of the curved lines at the corners also counts a 
point, making 16 points for the lines, or 40 points in all. The players start 
at the bottom, opposing players moving in opposite directions, and with each 
throw of the sticks the thrower moves her awl forward and sticks it into the 
blanket at the dot or line to which her throw carries her. The parallels on 
each of the four sides are called fivers, and the dots within these parallels do 
not count in the game. The rivers at the top and bottom are dangerous and 
ean not be crossed, and when the player is so unlucky as to score a throw whicb 
brings her upon the edge of the river (i. e., upon the first line of either of these 
pairs of parallels) she falls into the river and must lose all she has hitherto 
gained, and begin again at the start. In the same way, when a player moving 
around in one direction makes a throw which brings her awl to the place 
occupied by the awl of her opponent coming around from the other side the 
said opponent is whipped back to the starting point and must begin all over 
again. Thus there is a constant succession of unforeseen accidents, which 
furnish endless amusement to the players. J 
The game is played with four sticks, each from 6 to 10 inches long, flat on 
one side and round on the other. One of these is the trump stick and is 
marked in a distinctive manner in the center on both sides, and is also distin- 
guished by haying a green line along the flat side, while the others have each 
a red line. The Kiowa call the trump stick sahe, green, on account of the 
green stripe, while the others are called guadal, red. There are also a number 
of small green sticks, about the size of lead pencils, for keeping tally. Each 
player in turn takes up the four sticks together in her hand and throws them 
down on end upon the stone in the center. The number of points depends upon 
the number of flat or round sides which turn up. A lucky throw with a green 
or trump stick generally gives the thrower another trial in addition. The 
formula is: One flat side up counts 1;-one flat side up (if sahe), 1 and another 
throw; two flat sides up (with or without sahe), 2; three flat sides up, 3; 
three flat sides up (including sahe), 3 and another throw; all four flat sides 
“up, 6 and another throw; all four round sides up, 10 and another throw. 
Cat. no. 152908. Set of four sticks (figure 134), of a variety of 
alder, 54 inches in length, seven-sixteenths of an inch in width, 
and one-fourth of an inch in thickness; three with groove painted 
red on flat side and one with groove painted black. 
