184 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [ern ayy. 24 
one up, and buffalo’s head up gives another throw, and on this throw, if the 
two plain ones up and two with black spots with either of the half-moons or 
buffalo’s head up, the player takes a pile. Two plain ones up, two with black 
spots up, two half-moons up, and the transversely crossed one up entitles to 
another throw, when, if all the black sides come up excepting one, the throw 
wins. One of the plain ones up and all the rest with black sides up gives 
another throw, and the same then turning up wins. One of the plain black ones 
up with that side up of all the others having the least black on gives another 
throw, when the same turning up again wins. One half-moon up, with that 
side up of all the others having the least black on, gives another throw, and 
if the throw is then duplicated it wins. The eighth seed, used by men, has its 
place in their game whenever its facings are mentioned above. 
The permutations of the winning throws may be indicated as fol- 
So 'w 
lows: aa, bb, c, pp; Aa, BB, c, dd; AA, BB, Cc, DD; AA, BB, C, DD; aa, bd, 
c, dd; aa, bb, c, dd. 
Daxora (Yanxton). Fort Peck, Montana. (Cat. no. 37604, Free 
Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania.) 
Set of six plum stones (figure 238), kansu, for playing the game of 
kansukute, plum-stone 
shooting, marked as fol- 
lows: One pair marked 
on one face with a cross, 
kahdehdega, marked 
across, reverse black, 
ata sapa, all black; one 
Fig. 238. Plum-stone dice; Yankton Dakota Indians, pair marked on one 
Fort Peck, Montana; cat. no. 37604, Free Museum of face with burnt bands 
Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania. at the end, sanni ska, 
half white, the reverse, three dots, yamni, threes; one pair marked 
with two bands near one end, coka, ska, middle white, the reverse 
plain, ska, white. Collected by the writer in 1900. 
The game is played by both men and women. The dice are thrown with the 
hand. The object is to get a pair uppermost. Bets are made on particular 
pairs. In old times, when a man died, it was customary to gamble off his 
property at this game. This was done four or five days after death. The 
men and women sat in a circle. 
South Dakota. 
George P. Belden ® says: 
They used a kind of dice made of the stones of the wild plum, which grew 
very plentifully in the deep ravines and canyons a mile or two back from the 
Missouri river at this point. These stones were first dried hard, then polished 
by seraping them with a knife. Six were used for the game, four of them 
being spotted on one side and blank on the opposite, and the other two striped 
or checked on one side and left blank on the other. These spots and stripes 
were made on the stones by means of a small iron instrument which they used 
to paint buffalo robes with. The iron was heated, and the spots and stripes 
“ Belden, the White Chief, edited by Gen. James S. Brisbin, U. S. Army, p. 218, Cincin- 
nati, 1871. 
