186 ' GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [eEru. ann. 24 
sabyaese, black, equal 10; all marked sides down, sakyapese, white, 10; all 
marked sides down, except alone, 4; all marked sides down, except one, next, 3; 
all marked sides down, except one, common, 1; all marked sides up, except one, 
common, 1. This game is played exclusively by women and invariably for 
stakes. 
Fic. 240. Plum-stone dice; Yanktonai Dakota Indians, Devils Lake reservation, North Dakota; 
eat. no. 60369, Field Columbian Museum. 
Hipatsa. North Dakota. (Cat. no. 8425, United States National 
Museum. ) 
Set of four bone staves made from cores of elk horn, 84 inches in 
length, eleven-sixteenths of an inch in width in middle, and about 
one-sixteenth of an inch thick; the outer rounded face of the 
bone marked with lines and dots, filled in with faint red paint, 
as shown in figure 241, there being two pairs marked alike; the 
opposite side unmarked and showing texture of bone; ends 
rounded. Collected by Dr Washington Matthews, U. S. Army, 
and described as women’s gambling instruments. 
Doctor Matthews stated in a letter to the writer that these bone 
staves were not thrown so as to rebound, but gently, ends down, on a 
blanket. 
Fic. 241. Bone stick dice; length, 8} inches; Hidatsa Indians, North Dakota; cat. no. 8425, United 
States National Museum. 
Towa. Missouri. 
Catlin* describes a game among the Towa under the name of 
konthogra, game of platter. 
This is the fascinating game of the women and exclusively their own, played 
with a number of little blocks of wood the size of a half-crown piece, marked 
with certain points for counting the game, to be decided by throws, as they are 
shaken into a bowl and turned out on a sort of pillow. The bets are made 
after the bowl is turned and decided by the number of points and colors turned. 
“Thomas Donaldson, The George Catlin Indian Gallery. Report of the Smithsonian 
Institution for 1885, p. 152, 1887. 
