140 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [eTH. ann. 24 
be explained upon the supposition that the plaques originated in 
basket shields. The coiled basket trays made by the Hopi Indians at 
the Second mesa, which suggest shields in their general character, were 
probably derived from shields. One of the Hopi names for shield is 
tii’-o-po-o-ta, from tii'’-o-ka, enemy, po’-o-ta, the circular tray. An 
unique example of an ancient basket shield, from a cliff-dwelling in 
the Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, is represented in plate 1.2 
Yoxuts. Fort Tejon and Tule river, California. 
Mr Stephen Powers ” gives the following account: 
The Yokuts have a sort of gambling which pertains exclusively to women. It 
is a kind of dice throwing, and is called u-chu’-us. For dice they take half of a 
large acorn or walnut shell, fill it level with pitch and pounded charcoal, and 
inlay it with bits of bright colored abalone shells. For a dice table they weave 
a very large fine basket tray, almost flat, and ornamented with devices woven 
in black or brown, mostly rude imitations of trees and geometrical figures. 
Four squaws sit around it to play, and a fifth keeps tally with fifteen sticks. 
There are eight dice, and they scoop them up in their hands and dash them into 
the basket, counting 1 when two or five flat surfaces turn up. The rapidity 
with which the game goes forward is wonderful, and the players seem totally 
oblivious to all things in the world beside. After each throw that a player 
makes she exclaims, yet’-ni or wi-a-tak or ko-mai-éh, which are simply a kind 
of sing-song or chanting. 
Tule River reservation, Tulare county, California. (Cat. no. 
70395, 70396, 70397, Field Columbian Museum.) 
Eight split reeds (figure 160), 15 inches in length, with backs rudely 
smeared with seven and eight bands of red paint; four willow 
Fic. 160. Cane dice and counting sticks; length of dice, 13 inches; length of counting sticks, 20 
inches; Yokuts Indians, Tule River reservation, California; cat. no. 70395, 70396, Field Colum- 
bian Museum, 
counters, 20 inches long, marked with red stripes; and 25 willow 
sticks, pointed at one end. 
«This shield, which is 31 inches in diameter, was found by Mr Charles L. Day, of Chin 
Lee, Arizona, in the cliff-house known as the Mummy caye, in the Canyon del Muerto, July 
19,1904. It is now in the United States National Museum, eat. no, 281778. 
> Tribes of California. Contributions to North American Ethnology, y. 3, p. 377, Wash- 
ington, 1877. 
