406 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS [nru. ann. 24 
Norriwcewock. Norridgewock, Maine. 
-Rasles “ gives, under joiiets des enfans: 
SShé, c’est un bois plat qu’ils font glisser sur la nége, glace. 
Passamaquoppy. Maine. 
Mrs W. W. Brown ” describes the following game (figure 522) : 
T’so-h4-ta-ben, or t’so-hé-ac, requires more skill, both in construction and play- 
ing, than other outdoor games. It is played on the crust or hard-drifted snow of 
the hillside. If this is the game spoken of by other writers as snow-snakes, 
there is nothing in the name to so indicate. Hach player is supposed to supply 
himself with the required few t’so-hé-ac, sticks. In that case all the sticks are 
bunched and thrown up, except five sticks, though it sometimes happens that 
quite a number will join in the game, each contestant catching what he can as 
they fall. These sticks have different values, and as distance is what is aimed 
at, the one going furthest wins all the others of 
rere ———— the same kind. They are set in motion by that 
je peculiar movement which boys use in skipping 
© — stones on the water. Theshouts of the players, 
& cage as the stick flies over the snow to the goal of 
S success, or buries itself in the drift of defeat, 
Fic. 522. Snow darts: (a)m-quon, ‘are deafening. As the sticks are, one by one, 
the spoon; (b) at-ho-sis, the snake; A = a a aR ite 
(@) Gases, Gh) TORR set in motion, the player sings “ la-hai-wa, la- 
p’t/gukwhol-tik; (e) be-dupk-ts, ha-wa,” calling the stick by name, and this, 
the duck; Passamaquoddy In-- echoed and reechoed from the valley, is not al- 
gene malses from Mrs W. W. together unmusiéal. The sticks, or t’so-he-de, 
: are named m-quon, at’ho-sis, p-tqik whol-éik, 
ske-ga-weis, and be-dupk-ts. M’quon, the spoon, is about 2 feet long, flat at 
top and bottom, with one end concave like the, bowl_of a spoon. A-t*ho-sis, 
the snake, is long, slender, and round, one end resembling a snake’s head, the 
other pointed. Ske-ga-weis is*flat underneath, round on top, about 2 feet in 
length, one end notched to resemble its name of wart, P’t’gik-whol-fik is the 
largest of all. From 5 to 7 feet long and nearly round, both ends raised slightly 
and pointed, going with great force and speed, it drives in and out through the 
snow, causing much merriment and noisy betting, Be-dupk’t’s, the duck, is about 
3 feet [long], flat on top, round underneath, with an end like the head of a duck. 
Sometimes these t’so-he-ac are clever imitations, the coloring being also effective. 
Though this game is not played as much as formerly, even the young boys seem 
to understand whittling the sticks into a recognizable resemblance to the duck. 
Prnosscor. Oldtown, Maine. (Cat. no. 48233 to 48235, Peabody 
Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology.) 
Three carved sticks, flat on the under side and curving upward in 
front, one (48233), snake head, 21 inches in length (figure 523a) ; 
another (48234), spoon mouth, 18 inches in length (figure 5230) ; 
and the third (48235), 144 inches in length (figure 523c). 
These specimens ‘were made by Big Thunder and collected by Mr 
C. C. Willoughby, who furnished the following account of the game, 
which is called suha: 
«Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, n. s., v. 1, p. 472, Cam- 
bridge, 1833. 
; >’ Some Indoor and Outdoor Games of the Wabanaki Indians. Proceedings and Transac- 
tions of the Royal Society of Canada, v. 6, sec. 2, p. 44, Montreal, 1889. 
