A GREAT GAMBLING GAME. 191 
grunt ‘ Uh-uh’, uh-uh’, uh-uh'!” though they still keep perfect time with the 
twisting motion. Then they interpolate divers and sundry highly super- 
fluous shouts and roll their eyes, as if the very deuce were in them or a 
violent attack of colonitis. 
Besides that, the old mustaches who are about to guess put on a won- 
derful amount of fancy flourishes. You shall see one with his eyes shining, 
almost glaring, as if he were possessed, slowly stretch out his hand, gradu- 
ally extend his forefinger, lean far forward, and hiss out fiercely between 
his teeth, ‘‘wi-i-i-i/” or, more abruptly, “tep!” Sometimes he stretches 
one arm out, shakes it violently a while, hissing through his teeth or chant- 
ing in their strange, frenzied manner; then suddenly jerks it home as if 
pulling in a sturgeon, and shoots out the other, whereupon the open palms 
smite together in passing with a report almost like a pistol-shot, and out 
hisses ‘“‘wi-i-i-i!” or “tep!” 
All these things are conducted with that fanatic frenzy, that weird super- 
fluity of unction, so characteristic of the California Indian, These multi- 
plied manipulations and juggleries attract the stranger’s attention so much 
that he forgets to notice the simple machinery of the matter for a long time. 
After contemplating it for a full half-hour my mind was still in about as 
lucid a condition as it is after reading the following quatrain: 
“The twain that, in twining, before in the twine, 
As twins were intwisted, he now doth untwine; 
*Twixt the twain intertwisting a twine more between, 
He, twirling his twister, makes a twist of the twine.” 
But the Indians are so accustomed to all this blue fire that the circle of 
spectators look on with that stolid and imperturbable gravity peculiar to 
the race; and no matter how deeply any one may be involved in the issue, 
one can discern no indications of itin his countenance. This singular game 
was protracted until midnight, when we came away, and we learned next 
morning that it was not concluded till two o'clock. One thing is praise- 
worthy in the Indian gamblers, and that is the good nature with which they 
accept all their losses. They very seldom quarrel over a game, and never 
fight unless inflamed with the white man’s a’-ka bish-i-tu (bad water). 
But for all kinds of gambling both sexes and all ages have a positive 
passion. The Gualala wife of Hopps, although the mother of two little 
