cuLty] HOOP AND POLE: NISKA 471 
they played they used two long sticks and a wheel. First they threw 
the wheel a long way, then they ran to it and pitched the sticks into 
the ring. The boy lost from the start and finally staked his life, being 
told his body was equal to three bets. He lost two of these when it 
became dark, and the gambler was persuaded by the boy to leave the 
third part until the next day. From this the man called the boy 
Half-a-Boy. The boy went to sleep on the ground and was awakened 
by two women, who revealed themselves as buffalo cows. He ran 
with them and they traveled part of the night, until they saw a light, 
which they said was their grandfather and grandmother taking a 
smoke. When they came up the young women asked the old people 
to make haste and give the boy powers so that he could get out of his 
trouble. 
Deinde puero preceptum est ut ad tergum tauri iret, et, cum eius 
membrum semel prehendisset, * palum atrum” posceret: membro 
iterum prehenso, “ palum rubrum” posceret. Hee igitur fecit. 
Deinde ei preceptum est ut ad bovem profectus eius volvam pre- 
henderet, anulumque posceret. Hoe facto, puer iam palos duos anul- 
wmque habebat. 
The black stick remaining in the ring represented the old man and 
the old woman. He was requested to let the black stick remain in the 
ring where it belonged and to give the red stick to his opponent. In 
the game that followed, in which the boy’s sticks and ring were 
employed, the black stick whic’. the boy used never failed to find the 
wheel, and the boy won back everything in the village and finally 
the life of the gambler himself. This man was a shadow, and his 
name was Shadow-of-the-Sun. When the boy won the third and 
last part of him, he jumped out of the way as he pitched the last 
stick, and when the stick entered the wheel there arose two great big 
buffalo, who set after Shadow-of-the-Sun and hooked him until 
they tore him to pieces. Half-a-Boy burned the gambler’s body and 
ordered all the bones of his victims to be placed in the fire. Then 
they all came to life in the same manner related in other stories. 
CHIMMESYAN STOCK 
Nisxa. Nass river, British Columbia. 
Dr Franz Boas* describes the following games: 
Sménts, A hoop is placed upright. The players throw at it with sticks or 
blunt lances, and must hit inside the hoop. 
Matldii’, A hoop wound with cedar bark and set with fringes, is hurled by 
one man. The players stand in a row, about 5 feet apart, each carrying a 
lance or stick. When the ring is flying past the row, they try to hit it. 
«Fifth Report on the Indians of British Columbia. Report of the Sixty-fifth Meeting 
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 583, London, 1895. 
