250 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [xrn. ann. 24 
Nisquatty. Washington. 
Mr George Gibbs® states: 
“Another [game], at which they exhibit still more interest, is 
played with ten disks of hard wood, about the diameter of a Mexican 
dollar, and somewhat thicker, called, in the jargon, tsil-tsil; in the 
Niskwalli language la-halp. One of these is marked and called the 
chief. A smooth mat is spread on the ground, at the ends of which 
the opposing players are seated, their friends on either side, who are 
provided with the requisites for a noise, as in the other case. The 
party holding the disks has a bundle of the fibers of the cedar 
bark, in which he envelops them, and, after rolling them about, tears 
the bundle into two parts, his opponent guessing in which bundle the 
chief lies. These disks are made of the yew, and must be cut into 
shape with beaver-tooth chisels only. The marking of them is in it- 
self an art, certain persons being able by their spells to imbue them 
with luck, and their manufactures bring very high prices. The game 
is counted as in the first mentioned. Farther down the coast, ten 
highly polished sticks are used, instead of disks.” 
Penp D’OremttEs. Montana. 
The Dictionary of the Kalispel ” gives the following definition : 
Play at sticks, chines zlalkoi. 
Puyatiur. Puyallup reservation, Puget sound, Washington. (Cat. 
no. 55904, Field Columbian Museum.) 
Set of ten wooden disks, 2} inches in diameter, with raised edge. 
This was collected by Dr George A. Dorsey, who has furnished the 
following particulars: 
Name of game, suwextdz; name of disks, lahalabp; six females, half black 
and half white; one male, all black ; three odd, all white, chatosedn. 
I was told by the Indians from whom I got the game that there are generally 
fifty counters. 
Tacoma, Washington. 
The Tacoma correspondent of the San Francisco Examiner, Mr 
Thomas Sammons, gives the following account in that paper, Febru- 
ary 10, 1895: 
The sing gamble is the great contest between two tribes of the Puget Sound 
Indians for the trophies of the year and for such blankets, wearing apparel, 
vehicles, and horses as can be spared to be used for stakes, and sometimes more 
than should be spared. This year the pot at the beginning of the gamble con- 
sisted of 12 Winchester rifles of the latest pattern, 11 sound horses, 7 buggies, 
100 blankets, 48 shawls, an uncounted pile of mats, clothing for men and women 
(some badly worn and some in good condition, but mostly worn), and $49 in 
money. 
* Contributions to North American Ethnology, y. 1, p. 206, Washington, 1877. 
*A Dictionary of the Kalispel or Flathead Indian Language, compiled by the Mission- 
aries of the Society of Jesus. St. Ignatius Print. Montana, 1877—8-9. 
