cULIN] DICE GAMES: WIKTCHAMNE 139 
name being applied to the dice. Three up and 3 down count 1; all up or all 
down, 5. The count is kept with 10 sticks, witchet. The basket plaque is 
called tai-wan. The designs on this plaque represent the women players, the 
walnut-shell dice, and the counters. : 
The game is played also by all other Mariposan tribes in this manner. 
Wixrcuamne. Keweah river, California. (Collection of Dr C. 
Hart Merriam.) 
Flat basket plaque for dice game (figure 159) 224 inches in diameter, 
with a coil foundation of yellow grass, Hpicampes rigens; the 
body material is of the root of the Cladium mariscus. Tt is dec- 
Fig. 159. Dice plaque; diameter, 22} inches; Wiktchamne Indians, Keweal river, California; 
in the collection of Dr C. Hart Merriam. 
' 
orated with colored designs in red and black; the red twigs with- 
bark on, of redbud (Cercis occidentalis), the black, the root of 
the basket fern (Pteridivm). Doctor Merriam describes the 
game as played with eight dice of half walnut shells filled with 
pitch, inlaid with abalone shell. The flat faces up count when 
2, 5, or 8 are up together. Two and five up count 1 each; eight 
up, 4. The basket is called ti-wan. The man-lke figures repre- 
sent water dogs, the 5-spots, wild-cat tracks, and the double 
triangles, deer tracks. 
The employment of these basket plaques in dice games may in part 
