CULIN] DICE GAMES: PAPAGO 
147 
cally, bunched in the right hand, and struck from underneath on their lower ends 
by a stone grasped in the left hand, the blow shooting them vertically into the 
air [figure 166]. Two backs and two fronts of any sticks up counts 2; three 
fronts and one back of any sticks up, 3; three backs and the young man up, 4; 
all fronts up, 52; three backs and the old woman up, 6; all backs, 10; three backs 
and the young woman up, 14; three backs and the old man up, 15. 
touch or fall on one another, the throw must 
be repeated. The counts are kept on a rec- 
tangle marked on the ground [figure 167], 
usually approximating 12 by 8 feet, having 
ten holes, or pockets, counting the corners 
each time along each side. At two alternate 
corners are two quadrants called houses 
(kee) of five holes each not counting the cor- Fie. 165. Stick dice; length, 9} inches; 
ner holes, called doors (jouta). 
The game is played by two, three. or four 
players for self or partner, with counters 
If the sticks 
—— a & 
i= 
Papago Indians, Pima county, Ari- 
zona; cat. no. 174516, United States 
National Museum. 
ealled horses. These usually number two for each player. 
into play consecutively and by alternate throws of the players. A throw of 
less than 5, which does not carry the horses out of the door, prevents a 
player from entering another horse until his aggregate throws are 5+, thus 
After all the horses of a single 
putting his horse into the rectangle proper. 
contestant are in play he may move the same horse continuously. 
It is optional with the 
the pockets from A to either of the nearest corners is 15. 
player whether he turns to the left or right upon leaving the door, though he 
O 
( 
@y OO) OHO) 
O 
d 
PLAYER 
PLAYER 
Fig. 167. 
They are put 
In counting, 
’ 
Fic. 165. Papago Indian striking stick dice in the air; from photograph by William Dinwiddie. 
Fic. 167. Circuit for stick dice; Papago Indians, Arizona; from sketch by McGee and Dinwiddie. 
must move his horse round the rectangle in the same direction after once 
starting. If X throws 15, moving to a, and W throws the same number, enabling 
him to move to the same point, he kills, or throws X’s horse out of play, and he 
must start his piece over again; and again, if he should throw 14, he accom- 
plishes the same result (there is no 1 in the stick count). 
should get to ¢ and W throw 10 from house and get to d, he does not kill him. 
If on the next throw W throws 14 and X has not moved from ¢, he kills him. 
A horse must run entirely around the rectangle and back into the house pockets, 
where he is safe from being killed; but to make him a winning piece, the exact 
However, 
* At this play they all laugh, and say the player “has not done skinning himself.” 
if X 
