152 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _[beTH. ann. 24 
second, ki-ik vak° utra, four hole end; the third, vai-ik vak* utra, three hole 
end; the fourth, sap*k* utra, right end or place; the fifth, tai-1 utra, fire end or 
in the fire. 
Doctor Russell describes also the following stick dice game, which 
is played exclusively by women: # 
Ka-aimisakut. This stave game is played with eight sticks, in two sets of 
four each, which are colored black on the rounded side in one set and black on 
the flat side in the other, the opposite side being stained red. Two play, each 
using her own set of sticks, but exchanging them alternately, so that first one 
set is in use and then the other. They are held loosely in the right hand, and 
are thrown from the end of the metate or any other convenient stone. If all 
fall red side up, one point is scored by a mark in the sand. If all are black, 
two are counted. Four points completes the game. 
Taranumare. Pueblo of Carichic, Chihuahua, Mexico. (Cat. no. 
#2,, American Museum of Natural History.) 
Set of four spht reeds, 6 inches in length and one-half of an inch in 
width, marked on the inner, flat sides, as shown in figure 177; 
opposite sides plain. 
Collected by Dr Carl Lumholtz, who says: ? 
Their greatest gambling game, at which they may play even when tipsy, is 
quince, in Tarahumare romavéa. It is played with four sticks of equal length, 
ealled romflaka and inseribed with certain marks to indicate their value. They 
practically serve the same purpose as 
: F 7 Fai dice, but they are thrown in a different 
nN x QQ WCJow Ys j way. The player grasps them in his left 
hand, levels their ends carefully, lifts 
>< |! his bundle and strikes the ends against 
a flat or square little stone in front of 
him, from which they rebound toward 
( = ies) his opponent. The sticks count in ae- 
cordance with the way they fall. The 
ie oe | point of the game is to pass through a 
ae = — figure outlined by small holes in the 
Fic. 177. Stick dice; length, 6 inches; Tara- ground between the two players. The 
nae ae piven Pa eee movements, of course, depend upon the 
Museum of Natural History. points gained in throwing the sticks, 
and the count is kept by means of a 
little stone, which is placed in the respective hole after each throw. Many 
accidents may impede its progress; for instance, it may happen to be in the, 
hole into which the adversary comes from the opposite direction. In this 
case he is killed, and he has to begin again from the opposite side. The 
advance is regulated by a number of ingenious by-laws, which make the game 
highly intellectual and entertaining. If he has the wherewithal to pay his 
losses, a Tarahumare may go on playing for a fortnight or a month, until he 
has lost everything he has in this world except his wife and children; he draws 
the line at that. He scrupulously pays all his gambling debts. (See plate 
Wi, ¢.) 
= = oe ms = = = 
«rom a forthcoming memoir by the collector, to be published by the Bureau of Ameri- 
can Ethnology. 
>’ Unknown Mexico, v. 1, p. 278, New York, 1902. 
