CULIN] DICE GAMES: KEKCHI 141 
These were collected by Dr J. W. Hudson, who describes them as 
used in the flip-stave game by women. 
The game is called tsikehi, to hurdle. Twenty-five sticks are stuck in a row 
in the ground and receive the same name as the game. The throws are counted 
around these sticks with four stick counters or horses called witchet. All con- 
eave sides up count 16; one concave side up, 1; two concave sides up, 2, and so 
on; but if an opponent ties your throw you go back as much. 
The game appears from Doctor Hudson’s description to be played also for 
counting sticks, when 4 up and 4 down count 1; all up or all down, 4. The 
sticks are ta-cha. In another dialect they are Ka-li-sa. 
Yoxurs. Mouth of Mill creek, Fresno county, California. (Cat. 
no. 70671, 70672, Field Columbian Museum.) 
Eight walnut-shell dice (figure 161); basket plaque, 234 inches in 
diameter. Collected by Dr J. W. Hudson. 
The shells are filled with gum, with pieces of abalone shell inserted 
as usual, and the basket is old, with colored design. 
Fi. 161. Walnut-shell dice; diameter, about 1 inch}, Yokuts Indians, Fresno county, California; 
eat. no. 70671, Field Columbian Museum. 
MAYAN STOCK 
Kexenr. Northern Guatemala. 
Mr Thomas J. Collins, of Haddonfield, N. J., who spent some time 
in Guatemala, has communicated to the writer the following account 
of the corn game of this tribe. He says that it is still in common use 
among those in the outlying districts. In or near the Spanish- 
speaking towns, although known, it is rarely, if ever, played. 
It is known as bool-ik (from bool, dice, and ik, state of, or meaning of) ;¢ or 
as batsunk, to play; lain oj guech txe batsunk, I want to play. 
*Tn reply to my inquiry in reference to the meaning of bool, Mr Collins writes me as 
follows, under date of December 25, 1899: 
“T have some information as to the Kekchi word bool-ik. I asked for a list of all the 
words containing the syllable bool from a seminative who has the reputation of knowing 
the language better than a Guatemalteco. Bool: un pajarito chiquitito, the smallest of 
birds ; bool: cumbre de las montanas, the summits of mountains; bool: burbuja, bubble: 
bool: granos de maiz marcados, the dice; bool-ok: jogar; to play. 
“The third (bubble) recalls to me something of interest. A small, turbulent stream 
near the house at Chama was called the bul-bul-hf, and this name was also given to a 
stream on the opposite mountain when the sound of its roaring reached us during the 
rains. Superlatives are made by repeating the adjective, and bul-bul-h4 would signify 
an extremely bubbling, playful water. The way they throw the dice and the rebounding 
and rolling of them on the ground are very suggestive of bubbling water and eddies, aud 
if the bird he means be the humming bird, as is likely, its motion would be in line with 
the same idea. The summits of the mountains are not unlike the irregular up-and-down 
flight of humming birds. I think that bul (bool) may fairly be taken to mean bubbling, 
playful, or dancing, in a general sense.” 
