CULIN] HIDDEN-BALL GAME: WALAPAT orl: 
Collected in 1904 by Mr Louis L. Meeker, who describes this game 
under the name of ta-thulsh: 
The speckled reed is called kota-aks, old man, and the blank reed, ako-ash, 
old woman. The reed marked in the center is called tok-gum-yorsh, and the 
one marked at the end (mouth marks) hiya quimyorsh. The ball is called 
ne hatch, pet or live stock. 
The ball is concealed in one of the reeds, and the opponent endeavors to 
guess in which one it is hidden. If he fails, the other player shows which 
contains the ball, and the original guesser tries once again. 
Mr Meeker describes a similar game as follows: 
Ch-alh, stick in sand. <A stick is concealed in one of four heaps of sand 
or dust, and the opponent, who has absented himself, returns and guesses which 
heap contains the stick. 
Watapat. Walapai reservation, Arizona. (Cat. no. 63210, Field 
Columbian Museum. ) 
Implements (figure 491) for the game of nawfa, consisting of a ball 
and counting sticks. 
Collected by Mr Henry P. Ewing, who furnished the following 
account of the game: 
The game of naw-fa is played with sixteen stems of the soap weed, or 
Spanish bayonet (Yucca filamentosa), cut in equal lengths and tied loosely 
Fig. 491. Hiding balland counting sticks; diameter of ball, 2} inches; length of sticks, 18} inches; 
Walapai Indians, Arizona; cat. no. 63210, Field Columbian Museum. 
together with a wisp of fibers of the same plant, and a small ball cut out of 
the root of the same plant called me-nat ka-ta-u-ta-ga, short yucca, me-nat 
being the Walapai name for the Spanish bayonet, and the katautaga meaning 
short, little. The stems serve as counters and are called sa-hu-na-ga. 
To play the game, two persons or two sides select a place where the soil is 
soft and sandy and dig up with a stick or the hands two trenches or holes 
about 3 or 4 feet long and about 6 or 8 inches deep and a foot wide. The 
loose soil or sand is left in the trench, and one of the players takes the ball, 
while the bundle of counters is placed between the two trenches on the ground. 
The player with the ball takes it in his left hand and buries it, hand and all, 
in the loose sand at one end; then he draws his hand back, at the same time 
piling the sand over the buried hand with the other. He gradually withdraws 
the hand to the far end of the trench, all the time piling up the sand over the 
trench. When he has withdrawn the hand from the trench the ball is missing, 
he having hid it somewhere in the loose earth. He divides the earth in the 
ditch into four piles by piling it up with his hands. One of his opponents now 
runs his hand into one of the piles. If he finds the ball there, he takes it and 
hides it in his trench. If he misses, sometimes the hider will say: “ Sik a yu 
cha "—guess again. Of course there are but three chances against him this 
