MURDOCH. ] ; TOYS. 379 
of sinew braid about 1 foot long to the end of a slender rod, which 
serves as a handle. When swung rapidly round by the handle it 
makes a loud, whizzing sound. It 
is very neatly made, and painted 
with black lead and red ocher. 
The tips of the board are black 
for about one-half inch and the 
rest is red, and the upper half of 
the handle marked with five rings 
about one-half inch wide and 1 
inch apart, alternately black and 
red. This appears to be purely 
a child’s toy and has no mystical 
signification. I never saw one in 
the hands of an adult. This speci- 
men was made and brought over 
for sale by a lad about thirteen 
or fourteen years old. 
Fig. 378 (No. 56687 [181] from 
Utkiaywin) is another plaything 
rather common with the boys, 
which takes the place of the 
American boy’s “bean snapper.” 
Tt is known by the name of miti’- 
gligaun, and is arod of ¢ 
whalebone, stiff and 
black, 4:8 inches long 
and.0 wide, narrowed 
and bent sharply up for 
about an inch at one 
end. On the upper side 
of this end, close to the 
tip, is a little hollow, large enough to hold a small pebble, | 
and the other is cut into sharp teeth. This is purely an instru- 72 
ment of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at peo- 
ple when they are looking the other way. Miunialu showed 
us, with great glee, in an expressive pantomime, how a boy 
would hit a person in the eye with a little pebble, and, when 
the man turned round angrily, would have the snapper slipped 
up his sleeve and be ooking earnestly in another direction. 
The toothed end, he said, was for mischievously scratching 
hairs out of a man’s coat when he was looking another way. pubic suap- 
The “snapper” is used as follows: It is held in the left hand, bie 
a little pebble is set in the socket, and the tip of the whalebone bent 
back with the right hand. When this end is let go the elasticity of 
the whalebone drives the pebble at the mark with considerable force. 
As far as I can learn this mischievous toy is peculiar to the Northwest. 
Fi4. 377.— W hizzing stick. 
