cULIN] RING AND PIN: ASSINIBOIN 555 
Cat. no. 20932. Small bone (probably a bird bone), 12% inches in 
length, marked with notches, as shown in figure 736, with a 
cotton cord passing through it having a wooden pin at one end. 
There are the traces of a tuft of rabbit fur at the end opposite the 
pin. The object of the game is to catch the bone on the pin at 
the hollow end nearest the pin, or, possibly, also, in the tuft of 
fur. 
Collected by Dr Edward Palmer. 
Fic. 736. Bone and pin; length of bone, 14 inches: Ute Indians, St George, Utan; cat. no. 20932, 
United States National Museum. 
SIOUAN STOCK 
Assryiporn. Fort Belknap reservation, Montana. (Field Colum- 
bian Museum. ) 
Cat. no. 60205. Seven phalangeal bones, perforated and strung on a 
thong, with a bone needle at one end and a triangular piece of 
buckskin, perforated with holes, at the other end (figure 737). 
Cat. no. 60263. Seven phalangeal 
bones, like the preceding, but 
smaller; with wire needle and 
triangular piece of buckskin. 
Collected in 1900 by Dr George A. 
Dorsey, who describes the game un- 
der the name of taseha: 
A game formerly much played by young 
men and women, and known as the court- 
ing or matrimonial game. The cups (toe 
bones of the deer, perforated) are swung 
forward and upward, the buckskin being Rie a 
held by the thumb and forefinger. As the rere son Loe pe 
cups descend the attempt is made to catch seer 
one or more of them on the end of the 
bodkin or to thrust the bodkin into one of the perforations in the triangular 
piece of buckskin attached to the end of the cord beyond the last cup. 
The points played are generally 40, the cups having a numerical value, begin- 
ning with the first cup, counting 1; the second, 2, ete. According to the owner of 
the set no. 60263, the last cup counted 40, and so won the game, while the owner 
of the set no. 60205 [figure 737] claimed that the first cup counted 5. In both 
games the small holes in the buckskin are worth 4, while the large hole (chaute, 
heart) has a value of 9. 
The game as at present played is almost purely one of pastime. That it 
formerly had a deep significance there is no doubt. 
