CULIN] HOOP AND POLE: NAVAHO 459 
Concerning another game mentioned by Doctor Matthews in this 
connection, atsa, played with forked sticks and a ring, Father Berard 
writes: 
Atsi also means an eagle, whilst tsa’ signifies a needle, awl, or anything 
similar, ergo, forked sticks? (ts’A, basket). It was impossible for me to find 
any clue to this game, unless we assume that it is another form of na’azhozh. 
Many of the games of the legends of the Navaho, they say, are purely mythical 
or artificial and have not been played by them. 
Navano. Arizona, New Mexico. 
Dr Washington Matthews“ refers to the game of nanzoz, as played 
by the Navaho, as much the same as the game of chungkee played by 
the Mandan, described and depicted by Catlin (see p. 512). 
A hoop is rolled along the ground, and long poles are thrown after it. The 
Mandan pole was made of a single piece of wood. The pole of the Navaho is 
made of two pieces, usually alder, each a natural fathom long; the pieces 
overlap and are bound together by a long branching strap of hide called thagi- 
bike, or turkey-claw. 
Nanzoz was the second of the four games played by young Hastsé- 
hogan with the divine gambler or Gambling god named Nohoilpi, or 
“He Who Wins Men” (at play). 
Doctor Matthews” says that the game is played with two long 
sticks or poles of peculiar shape and construction, one marked with 
red and the other with black, and a single hoop. A long, many-tailed 
string, called the * turkey claw,” is secured to the end of each pole. 
In this contest the Great Snake came to the assistance of young 
Hasts¢éhogan. Nanzoz was played out of doors. 
The track already prepared lay east and west, but, prompted by the Wind God, 
the stranger insisted on having a track made from north to south, and again, 
at the bidding of Wind, he chose the red stick. The son of Hastséhogan 
threw the wheel; at first it seemed about to fall on the gambler’s pole, in the 
“turkey claw” of which it was entangled; but to the great surprise of the 
gambler it extricated itself, rolled farther on, and fell on the pole of his 
opponent. The latter ran to pick up the ring, lest Nohoilpi in doing so might 
hurt the snake inside; but the gambler was so angry that he threw his stick 
away and gave up the game, hoping to do better in the next contest, which 
was that of pushing down trees. 
Elsewhere ° Doctor Matthews describes the personator of Hatdast- 
sisl as carrying on his back a ring about 12 inches in diameter, 
made of yucca leaves, and, suspended from this by the roots, a com- 
plete plant of the Yucca baccata. The ring is like that used in the 
game of nanzoz and indicates that the god is a great gambler at 
nanzoz. 
* Navaho Legends, note 76, Boston, 1897. 
» Tbid., p. 85. 
¢ The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural 
History, whole series, v. 6, p. 15, New York, 1902. 
