HORN AND BONE IMPLEMENTS 3 1 i> 



as they take it in turn. Six peach stones are placed in a bowl, and 

 the game is used at the New Year's feast, clan against clan. The 

 stones are black on one side, white on the other, and five or six are 

 the only winning points. Six make o-hen-tah, a field ; five make 

 o-yu-ah, a bird. This is the great game described in the Relation 

 of 1636. "Wood describes it as played in New England with bone 

 counters : 



Hubbub is five small Bones in a small smooth Tray, the bones bee 

 like a Die, but something flatter, blacke on the one side and white on 

 the other, which they place on the ground, against which violently 

 thumping the platter, the bones mount changing colours with the 

 windy whisking of their hands too and fro : which action in that 

 sport they much use, smiting themselves on the breast, and thighs, 

 crying out, Hub, Huh, Httb / they may be heard play at this game 

 a quarter of a mile off. The bones being all blacke or white, make 

 a double game ; if three be of a colour and two of another, then 

 they affoarcl but a single game ; four of a colour and one different 

 is nothing. Wood, pt 2, ch. 14 



In the Relation for 1636 we are told that among the Hurons 

 " both sides bet loud and firmly. When the one on the opposite 

 side holds the dish, they scream loudly, '•Achinc, achinc, achinc f 

 three, three, or else Io-io, io-io, io-io, wishing that he may throw 

 only three white or three black. 1 ' 



A variety of this game is now played by the Iroquois with eight 

 bone counters, or buttons of deer horn. It is probable that both 

 were at first played with plum stones, so rarely are bone counters 

 found on Iroquois sites. Our earliest account is of stones of fruit. 

 In the domestic game eight bone or horn counters are used, but no 

 dish. So the Onondagas call the game ta-you-nyun-'umt-hah, or 

 finger-shaker, the pieces being thrown from the uplifted hand on a 

 blanket. The Senecas called it gus-ga-e-sd-ta. Six white or black 

 count two, called o-yu-ah, or the bird ; seven of a color count four, 

 called o-neo-sah, or pumpkin ; all white or all black gain 20, or a 

 field, called o-hen-tah. 



Fig. 163 is a Seneca gaming bone, which has been a little burned 

 toward the edge. This is modern, and is in the Buffalo academy of 

 science. Fig. 164 is from another set there, and has dots arranged 

 inside the circumference. One side is red. Fig. 166 is also from 

 Buffalo, but is an earlier and irregularly circular form. Fig. 16S is 



