CULIN] HAND GAME: TAKULLI 273 
design, and with the mere addition to one of the pair of the sinew wrapping 
necessary to determine the winning stick. The Babine specimens [figure 350] 
are rather large and must prove awkward in the hand of the gambler. But they 
have the reputation of being preventive of dishonesty, 
if distinctions between the honest and the dishonest can 
be established in connection with such a pastime as 
gambling. Such of these trinkets as are hollow have 
generally both ends shut with a piece of wood, and con- 
tain minute pebbles and gravel, which produce a gentle 
rattling sound in the hand of the native, much to his 
own satisfaction. HIE (EDD JES ea as 
game; length, 3 inches; 
Figure 351 represents the Tsipkoh’tin [Tsilkotin] and Babine Indians, British 
figure 352 the Tsé’kéhne [Sekani] equivalent of the Columbia; from Morice. 
Babine gambling sticks. It will be seen from the 
latter that the Tsé’kéhne, who are the most primitive and uncultured of the 
three tribes whose technology is under review, are again the only people who in 
this connection, as with regard to their spoons, have made the merest attempt 
at bone carving. 
The game played with these bone pieces is, I think, too well known to demand 
a description. The jerking movements and passes of hands of the party operat- 
ing therewith, as well as the drum beating and the singing of the spectators or 
partners, are practised among most of the Indian races, especially of the 
Pacifie coast, which have occupied the attention of American ethnologists. The 
Abbé Petitot says in one of his latest publications that this game is adventi- 
tious among the Eastern Dénés, who have borrowed it from the Crees. This 
Fig. 351. Fig. 352. 
Fig. 351. Bones for hand game; length, 3 inches; Tsilkotin Indians, British Columbia; from 
Morice. : 
Fig. 352. Bones for hand game; length, 3 inches; Sekani Indians, British Columbia; from 
Morice. 
remark is no less apposite with regard to their kinsmen west of the Rocky 
mountains. Although no other chance game possesses to-day so many charms 
for the frivolous Western Dénés, the old men assure me that it was formerly 
unknown among their fellow-countrymen. That their testimony is based on 
fact the very name of that game would seem to indicate, since it is a mere verb 
in the impersonal mood, not’so’a, ‘‘one keeps in the hand while moving,”’ and 
is therefore of the fourth category of Déné nouns. The word for “ gambling 
sticks,’’ such as used in connection with not’se’a, is ne’ta, which is the same 
verb under the potential form, and means “ that which can be held in the hand.” 
Any of the surrounding races, Tsimpsian, Salishan, or Algonquin, may be held 
responsible for its introduction among the Western Dénés, for they are all 
exceedingly fond of it. 
The original counterpart of the modern not’se’a was the atlih,¢ which in times 
was passionately played by the Carriers, but is now altogether forgotten except 
by a few elder men. 
@May be translated by “ gambling” in a general sense. 
24 ErTH—O5 M 18 
