274 TlMEHKI. 



be explained that a visit to town is a very rare event, 

 falling to the lot of but very few of these remote Indians, 

 and when it does happen making a correspondingly deep 

 impression on their minds. When such journeys do 

 occur a principal feature in them is the purchase and 

 bringing home of a number of small articles to which 

 the travellers take a fancy. So this important event 

 has given rise to a game. 



All but two of the players, seated on the ground, the 

 one behind the other and each clasping the player in 

 front of him, form a long line, which, by the motion of 

 the feet and thighs of its members, drags itself slowly 

 forward, the whole swaying from side to side, and in 

 some mysterious way closely imitating the forward roll- 

 ing motion and noise of a long and well-manned canoe. 

 Then the two players not included in the canoe — these 

 two alone not having been to town — pass down, one 

 on each side of the line, and as they come to each squat- 

 ting figure seize the feet and make the owner of the foot 

 name some obje<5l that he is supposed to have purchased for 

 each toe — a razor it may be for the big toe, a gun for the 

 next, cloth for the next, hair oil for the next, and a 

 "chimney-pot" hat for the little toe. The greater the 

 imagination shown in the choice of goods, and the 

 greater the incongruity of these, the louder are the 

 shouts of laughter from the spectators. 



When each player has given an account of his pur- 

 chases the game is extended in a way and to an extent 

 which might apparently be indefinite. First, rain over- 

 takes the travellers — that is, the two detached players 

 seize a long pole, each by one of its ends, and 

 applying this to one side of the line of squatting tra- 



