932 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [eru. yy. 24 
the purpose. An odd number -was separated into two portions by one player. 
The other chose one portion. If the number was odd, he won. 
Powunatan. Virginia. 
William Strachey ¢ says: 
Dice play, or cards, or lots they know not, how be it they use a game upon 
rushes much like primero, wherein they card and discard, and lay a stake too, 
and so win and lose. They will play at this for their bows and arrows, their 
copper beads, hatchets, and their leather coats. 
Tn his vocabulary Strachey gives: “ To play at any game, mamantt 
terracan.” 
Roger Beverley ” says: 
They have also one great diversion, to the practising of which are requisite 
whole handfuls of little sticks or hard straws, which they know how to count as 
fast as they can cast their eyes upon them, and can handle with a surprising 
dexterity. 
Sauk anp Foxrs. Iowa. (Cat. no. 78°,, American Museum of Nat- 
ural History.) 
Bundle of one hundred and two peeled willow sticks (figure 313), 12 
inches in length, and a pointed stick (figure 314), with a red- 
painted tip, 184 inches in length. 
These were collected by Dr William Jones, who describes them as 
implements for the counting game, agitci kanahamogi. The name 
means to count with an agent; agi- 
tasowa, he counts; agitasoweni, count- 
ing. 
— = = Dr Jones informed me that the 
Fig a Suk gone eet of =k game is no longer played, but, from 
cat. no. 3§%;, American Museum of the constant reference to it in stories, 
irre the people are all familiar with it and 
made the above-described implements according to their tradition. 
In playing, the entire bundle is held together in the hands and allowed to fall 
in a pile, which is then divided with the pointed stick, called the dividing stick. 
Fig. 314. Dividing stick for stick game; length, 13} inches; Sauk and Fox Indians, Iowa; cat. 
no. 3£%s, American Museum of Natural History. 
The object is to separate either 9, shagiiwa; or 11, metaswi neguti, or 13, 15, 17, 
or 19,¢ but the player must call out which of these numbers he attempts to 
divide before putting down the dividing stick. If he succeeds he scores 1 point, 
but if he fails the turn goes to another player. 
« Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, p. 78; printed for the Hakluyt Society, 
London, 1849. 
>The History and Present State of Virginia, p. 53, London, 1705; p. 175, Richmond, 
Wa., 1855. 
¢ Or 21, 31, 41; 23, 33, 43; 25, 35, 45; 27, 37, 47; 29, 39, 49, etc. 
