252 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _[ETH. Ann. 24 
the sharpness of the weather, for shirts and trousers were exceedingly scarce 
when the sixtieth stick had gone to the Puyallup end of the board. At the last 
part of the gamble the Black Rivers plunged wildly. The run of luck of the 
Puyallup had been constant, and Captain Jack announced to his followers that 
this could not continue. Luck must turn, and here was a chance for them to get 
every movable thing, except that which belongs to the Government, transferred 
from the Puyallup Reservation over to the Black River Reservation. His men 
were quick to follow his suggestion, and the result is that poverty is intense this 
year at Black River and the Puyallup are having a boom. 
Mr Sammons has kindly furnished the writer with the diagram 
99 
(figure 333) showing the positions of the players. 
Four Indians sit on each side of the two mats, making teams of eight on each 
side in addition to the Indian who actually does the playing. The position of 
this Indian is designated A, B. At the time of making the drawing A was 
shuffling the disk, a piece of wood, glass, or stone, half the size of an ordinary 
table saucer. The player’s two hands rest on the mat, and about them is a 
bunch of straw, moss, or anything of a like nature that can be had conveniently 
TALLY BOARD 
a ec 
Scena! A 
. of Iie eee O 
RATAN TT 
OV OSOg@ @©nO O'©, 
Brack RiveR Side PuYALLuP SIDE 
Fic. 333. Position of players in disk game; Puyallup Indians, Washington; from sketch by 
Mr Thomas Sammons. 
and used for the purpose of hiding the player’s hands and confusing the oppo- 
site team while the disk is being shuffled about. E and IF represent tum-tum, 
or bass-drum, players, who keep up a loud drumming while the shuffling is 
going on. This is done with the hope of confusing the opposite team, much as 
coaching is carried in from the coaching line for baseball teams of the present 
period. <A blazing heap of logs at the side warms the warriors and is tended 
by the women. The women during the game sing monotonously, as do also 
the four men on each side of the player. The opposing team, who have to do 
the guessing, remain very quiet and watch very closely every move of the 
hider’s hands. Should the opposing team guess rightly, one stick the size of 
one’s thumb and about 6 inches long is added to the team’s credit on the tally 
board placed between the drummers. Should the opposing team fail to guess, 
a stick is added to the credit of the team whose captain is doing the shuffling. 
When either side wins all the sticks the game is over, and the cows, horses, 
wearing apparel, dogs, harness, cash, watches, and wagons constituting the 
stakes are delivered to the winners. 
Suuswar. Kamloops, British Columbia. 
Dr Franz Boas* says: 
Another gambling game is played with a series of sticks of maple wood about 
«Second General Report on the Indians of British Columbia. Report of the Sixtieth 
Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 641, London, 1891. 
