284 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [e7TH. ann. 24 
These were collected by T. Jay Bufort, who gives, under the name 
of ithlacum, the following account of the game: 
Any number of players come together, at which time two captains choose 
sides. Then the captains divide the bones, each taking one white and one 
marked bone. The players sit facing each other with the counting sticks lying 
between them. By lot they 
decide which side shall play 
first. The successful man will 
take a bone in each hand, 
holding them in front of him, 
and will exchange them so 
rapidly that the bystanders 
are supposed not to know 
which hand has the marked 
bone. Then holding both 
hands still in front of him, 
exposing the ends, an opposite 
man makes a guess by point- 
ing at the hand which he 
FG. 366. Bones and counting sticks for hand game; length thinks contains the white 
of bones, 3} inches; length of sticks, 8} inches; Calapooya bone. The hands are then 
Indians, Siletz reservation, Oregon; cat. no. 63603, Field 
Columbian Museum. 
opened, exposing the bones to 
full view. If the guesser has 
pointed to the marked bone, he loses, and one of the markers is immediately 
placed to the credit of the player. If he guesses the white bone, he wins, and 
one of the markers is placed to his credit. Then he proceeds to shuffle the bones 
for the opposite side to guess. 
The amount of the stake played for is generally arranged on a series of 
12 games, each side putting up the amount collectively, and the winning side 
dividing at the end of the game. This does uot prohibit anyone, however, from 
betting on a single game or on one hand, which is often done as the game 
proceeds. 
KIOWAN STOCK 
Krowa. Oklahoma. 
Mr James Mooney“ describes the hand game of the Kiowa as 
follows: 
The name d6-4 signifies the tipi game; from do, tipi or house, and “a,” a 
game, because, unlike most of their games, it is played inside the tipi, being 
essentially a game for the long nights when the whole tribe is assembled in the 
winter camp. <A similar game is found among nearly all our wild tribes; it is 
played by both sexes, but never together. In its general features it resembles 
our game of “ hunt the button,” the players forming a circle around the fire of 
the tipi, one-half of them playing against the others, sitting facing them on the 
opposite side of the fire. The leader of one party then takes the k‘iiibo, or 
button, a short piece of stick wrapped around the middle with a strip of fur, 
and small enough to be concealed in the hand. Putting his closed hands 
together, he raises his arms above his head, clasps them across his chest, or 
puts them behind his back, endeavoring to pass the k’iiibo from one hand to 
another, or from his own hand to that of his next partner, without being per- 
« Calendar Tlistory of the Kiowa Indians. Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, p. 348, 1898. 
