CULIN] DICE GAMES: ZUNI 921 
painted red and black and outlined by incised lines, the opposite 
rounded and unpainted. 
Cat. no. 69281. Set of three sticks of yellow pine, 54 inches in length, 
1 inch in breadth, and three-eighths of an inch in thickness (fig- 
ure 298): one face flat and unpainted, the opposite face rounded 
and painted red and black in triangular designs, the triangles on 
one side being red with a black inner triangle, and vice versa, 
the outline of the larger triangles deeply incised. 
Cat. no. 69003. Set of three sticks of basswood, 42 inches in length, 
12 inches in breadth, and five-sixteenths of an inch in thickness 
(figure 299) ; flat and painted light red on one side, opposite side 
rounded and painted in triangular designs in red and black, the 
pattern being double that on numbers 69340, 69287, and 69281. 
The preceding Zufian staves were collected by Colonel James Stev- 
enson. They were all used, as I was informed by Mr Cushing, for 
the game of tasholiwe, or wooden’ canes, 
which he described to me as follows: 
Ta’-sho’-li-we@ is played according to the 
throws of three wooden blocks, painted red on 
one side and black upon the other, around a 
circle of stones placed upon the sand. Two or 
four players engage, using two or four splints 
as markers, and advancing, according to their 
throws, around the circle, which is divided !nto 
forty parts by pebbles or fragments of pottery, 
and has four openings, called doorways, at its 
four quarters. At the commencement of the 
game four colored splints are arranged at these Fre. 298. Stick dice; length, 54 
points: At the top (North) a yellow splint, at the inches; Zuni Gs Aunt New 
left (West) a blue, at the bottom (South) a red, qe eee ee 
and at the right (Hast) a white splint. The 
blocks are tossed, ends down, on a disk of sandstone placed in the middle of the 
circle, and the counts are as follows: Three red sides up count 10; three black 
sides up, 5; two red and one black, 3; two black and one red, 2. 
A count of 10 gives another throw. When four play. the straws of the North 
and West move around from right to left, and those of the South and Bast from 
left to right. When a player’s move terminates at a division of the circle 
occupied by an adversary’s straw he takes it up and sends it back to the begin- 
ning. It is customary to make the circuit of the stones four times, beans or 
corn of different colors being used to count the number of times a player has 
gone around. The colors on the wooden blocks or dice symbolize the two con- 
ditions of men: Red, light or wakefulness ; black, darkness or sleep. 
The splints have the following symbolism: At top, yellow, north, air, winter: 
at left, blue. west. water, spring; at bottom, red, south, fire, summer; at right, 
white, east, earth autumn. 
* Ta’-sho’-li-we was described by John G. Owens in the Popular Science Monthly, y. 39, 
1891. He gives the name of the central stone as a-rey-ley and the dice ta-mey. For 
counting, each player has a horse, or touche. “The horse is supposed to stop and drink 
at the intervals between the groups of stones. One game which I witnessed had loaded 
rifle cartridges for stakes. Bach player places his bet within the circle of stones.” 
