298 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [BTH. ANN. 24 
Mav. Sutters fort, Sacramento valley, California. 
Edwin Bryant? says: 
The game which they most generally play is as follows: Any number which 
may be concerned in it seat themselves crosslegged on the ground in a circle. 
They are then divided into two parties, each of which has two champions or 
players. <A ball, or some small article, is placed in the hands of the players on 
one side, which they transfer from hand to hand with such sleight and dex- 
terity that it is nearly impossible to detect the changes. When the players 
holding the balls make a particular motion with their hands, the antagonist 
players guess in which hand the balls are at the time. If the guess is wrong, 
it counts 1 in favor of the playing party. If the guess is right, then it counts 
i in favor of the guessing party, and the balls are transferred to them. The 
count of the game is kept with sticks. During the progress of the game all con- 
cerned keep up a continual monotonous grunting, with a movement of their 
bodies to keep time with their grunts. The articles which are staked on the 
game are placed in the center of the ring. 
Nisuinam. Mokolumne river, Eldorado county, 12 miles south of 
Placerville, California. 
Dr J. W. Hudson describes the grass game played by this tribe 
under the name of helai (hele=maternal cousin), or tep and wo: 
The bones are made of the ulna of a panther. Mai’daik (man), the bound 
bone; kii’-le (woman), the plain bone; team/’-he-lai (maternal third cousins), 
the ten stick counters, each of which represents a value fixed upon them before 
playing. Hat! the gesture and call. 
In Todd valley Doctor Hudson found the game played under the 
same name in the usual manner, but the plain bone was called toloma, 
penis, and the bound bone, pekon, vulva. 
California. 
Mr Stephen Powers ” says’: 
The most common mode of gambling (hi’-lai), used by both men and women, 
is conducted by means of four longish cylinders of bone or wood, which are 
wrapped in pellets of grass and held in the hand, while the opposite party 
guesses which hand contains them. These cylinders are carved from several ma- 
terials, but the Indians call them all bones. Thus they have the phrases 
pol’-loam hi’-lai hin, toan’-em hi’-lai hin, du’-pem hi’-lai bin, gai’-a hi’-lai hin, 
which means, respectively, to gamble with buckeye bones, pine bones, deer bones, 
and cougar bones. There is a subtle difference in their minds in the quality of 
the game, according to the kind of bones employed, but what it is I can not 
discern. This game, with slight variations, prevails pretty much all over Cali- 
fornia, and as I had opportunity of seeing it on a much larger scale on Gualala 
creek, the reader is referred to the chapter on the Gualala [see p. 289]. 
The su’-toh is the same game substantially, only the pieces are shaken in the 
hand without being wrapped in the grass. 
The ti’-kel ti’-kel is also a gambling game for two men, played with a bit of 
wood or a pebble, which is shaken in the hand, and then the hand closed upon it. 
The opponent guesses which finger (a thumb is a finger with them) it is under, 
and scores 1 if he hits, or the other scores if he misses. They keep tally with 
eight counters. 
«What I Saw in California, p. 268, New York, 1848. 
» Contributions to North American Ethnology, y. 3, p. 332, Washington, 1877. 
