cULIN] HAND GAME; MAIDU 297 
tribe, which the latter had lost to Haikutwotopeh through trickery. 
The original game is described as follows: 
They had four short pieces of bone, two plain and two marked. They rolled 
them up in little balls of dry grass; then one of the players held up one of 
Fic. 388. Bones for hand game: length, 2} to 3 inches; Konkau Indians, California; cat. no. ¢?£z, 
American Museum of Natural History. 
them in each hand, and the other held up his. If he matched them he counted 
2; if he failed to match them the other counted 1. There were sixteen bits of 
wood as counters, and when one got the sixteen he was the winner. 
Marv. California. (Cat. no. 3%,, American Museum of Natural 
History.) 
Four bones (figure 389), 24 inches in length, two plain and hollow, 
and two tied around the middle with thongs and plugged at the 
ends. Collected by Dr Roland B. Dixon in 1903, 
Dr Dixon refers to the game with bones in his Maidu Myths, and 
describes the adventures of two youths, the sons of a girl and Cloud- 
Man, created out of two bunches of feathers, and called Always- 
eating, and Conqueror, or Winner. After a series of exploits, killing 
Fig. 389. Bones for hand game; length, 2} inches; Maidu Indians, California; cat. no. 435, 
American Museum of Natural History. 
rattlesnakes, wood bugs, elk, and eagles, Conqueror gambles with an 
opponent, who has a passage through his body and can pass the 
gambling bones through this from one hand to the other. Conqueror 
with the help of the Sun closes this passage, and opens one in his own 
body, thus winning back his people, who have been lost to his oppo- 
nent. At the opening of the game the stakes are the players’ eyes. 
In another story, a variation of the preceding, the person with 
whom the hero plays is designated as Old-North-Wind. The stakes 
are eyes and hearts. The hero wins as before. 
« Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vy. 17, pt. 2, p. 51, New York, 
1902. 
