cuLIN] HAND GAME: YAMPA UTE old 
had two pieces of wood, one black and one white. The white alone counted, the 
black being to prevent fraud, as they had to change and show one in each hand. 
The arms were crossed and the hands hidden in the lap; they kept changing 
the pieces from one hand to the other. Should they fail to guess right, he lost 
his pe6én and counters allotted to the others, and so on until the corners were 
gone or all the pe6ns killed, when the others had a trial. They bet almost 
everything they possess. The umpire provided the fine and was paid by the 
night. 
Uinta Urs. White Rocks, Utah. (Cat. no. 37113, Free Museum of 
Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania.) 
Four slender, highly polished bones (figure 414), 34 inches in length. 
Two bound with a strip of leather in the middle. Collected by 
the writer in 1900. 
Fig. 414. Bones for hand game; length, 3} inches: Uinta Ute Indians, White Rocks, Utah; oat. 
no. 37113, Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania 
Yampa Ure. Northwest Colorado. 
Mr Edwin A. Barber? says: 
A row of players, consisting of five or six or a dozen men is arranged on either 
side of the tent, facing each other. Before each man is placed a bundle of 
small twigs or sticks, each 6 to 8 inches in length and pointed at one end. 
Every téte-a-téte couple is provided with two cylindrical bone dice,, carefully 
fashioned and highly polished, which measure about 2 inches in length and half 
an inch in diameter, one being white and the other black, or sometimes orna- 
mented with a black band. At the rear end of the apartment, opposite the 
entrance, several musicians beat time on rude parchment-covered drums. The 
whole assembly, sitting “ Turk fashion” on the ground, then commence opera- 
tions. The pledges are heaped up near the players, and each couple soon 
becomes oblivious of all the rest. One of the gamblers incloses a die in each 
hand, and, placing one above the other, allows the upper bone to pass into the 
lower hand with the other die. This process is reversed again and again, 
while all the time the hands are shaken up and down in order to mystify the 
partner in the passing of the dice. The other man, during the performance, 
hugs himself tightly by crossing his arms and placing either hand under the 
opposite arm, and, with a dancing motion of the body, swaying to and fro, 
watches the shuffling of the dice with the closest attention. When this has gone 
on for a few minutes the latter suddenly points with one arm at the opposite arm 
of his partner and strikes himself under that arm with the other hand. Which- 
ever hand of his rival he chooses is to be opened, and if the dice are in it, the 
guesser takes them and proceeds in the same manner. If, however, he misses, 
and the dice are not there, he forfeits one counter, and this is taken from his 
bundle and stuck into the ground in front of the other. Thus the game con- 
tinues until one or the other has gained every stick, when he is proclaimed the 
winner and carries off the stakes. During the entire game the players, as well 
“Gaming among the Utah Indians. The American Naturalist, y. 11, p. 351, Boston, 
1877. 
