316 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [eTH. ann. 24 
as the musicians, keep time to the accompaniment in their movements, and 
chant the while a weird, monotonous tune (?), which runs in this wise: 
With agitation. ips 
tee 
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, 
ff s 
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, 
=a 
Ne} 0 ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. 
No words are sung, but the syllable “‘ah” is pronounced in a whining, nasal 
tone for every note. The entire party keep excellent time, and are always to- 
gether, rising and falling in the scale with wonderful precision, since the tune 
itself is so devoid of melody that it is often difficult for a white man to acquire 
it. This monotonous chant is kept up for hours and even days, and the competi- 
tors seem never to grow weary. 
SIOUAN STOCK 
Asstniporn. North Saskatchewan river, near Carlton, Saskatchewan. 
Mr Charles Alston Messiter informs me that the Assiniboin and 
Cree Indians of the Saskatchewan river, during his residence with 
them from 1862 to 1864, constantly played the game of hand, using a 
bit of wood, pebble, or any small object. The man who held the 
pebble sang, but not those who played against him. Those in the 
audience, however, sang. There was no drumming. The score was 
kept by a row of wooden pegs 2 to 24 inches in length, which were stuck 
in the ground in front of each player. Each peg represented a skin. 
He had seen men lose horses, wife, and children on the game. 
Fort Union, Montana. 
Mr Edwin T. Denig “ says: 
Ordinary gambling for small articles, such as beads, vermilion, rings, knives, 
arrows, kettles, ete., is carried on by playing the game of hand, which consists 
in shuffling a pebble from one hand to the other and guessing in which hand 
the pebble is. They all sit in a ring on the ground, each with whatever stake 
they choose to put up before them. Both men and women join in the game, 
and a song is kept up all the time by the whole, with motions of the hands of 
him who holds the pebble. After singing about five minutes a guess is made by 
@ Report to Hon. Isaac I. Stevens on the Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri. Unpub- 
lished manuscript in the library of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 
