INDIAN GAMES. 187 



a stick in the ground to mark the games ;" " I win a game 

 from him, I place a stick," etc. ; " He takes the mark for 

 a game away from me, he removes a stick, etc ;" "He 

 takes away all my marks, he removes them all, etc." 



Rasles speaks of the ronds and the grains used in the 

 game. The former were evidently the dice,*^ of which 

 descriptions have been given in so many forms in the for- 

 mer paper. Conceruing the latter, Rasles in one place 

 gives the same word for them in connection with the game 

 of platter as he gives for the ronds, but elsevvhere speaks 

 of them as if they were wagered on the game. Referring 

 to the definition of porcelaine in Rasles, Dr. Trumbull 

 points out that the grains were the beads of wampum. 

 The value at which " Wampampeag" should pass current 

 as money was, at one time, fixed by law in the colony of 

 Massachusetts Bay.^^ It is, therefore, evident that when 

 Rasles represents the grains as placed upon interlaced loz- 

 enges (lozanges entrelassees) , he is describing a form of 

 betting where what was practically money was directly put 

 up on the game.*'^ 



*i Defiued, accordiug to Dr. Trumball in the niinois MS. Dictionary, asfollovvs : 

 " Feves pour jouer, comme des dez, noyaux des prunes, corne de cerfs, osselets a 

 jouer.^' 



*2The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony, Cambridge, 

 1672, p. 154. See also, Code of Laws, Colonial Records of Connecticut, Vol. i, p. 

 546. 



In Perrot's description of Straw, the grains spoken of were described as seeds 

 of trees much like apricots. Of these, he says, they took a certain amount repre- 

 senting a gun, a cover, etc. If he had used grains in the sense of wampum, there 

 would have been no necesaity to describe the stakes as having a representative 

 value. Wampum itself had a distinct value as a circulating medium among many 

 of the tribes. Rasles gives the measure of the different varieties in beaver. 



"In what I have said concerning the Information to be derived from Indian 

 dictionaries, I have tried to make clear the fact that I was indebted to the gener- 

 ous help of Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull. Many of the citations were inaccessible 

 to me and of those which were at my command, no such comprehensive analysis 

 would have been possible without his aid. The development of this part of the 

 subject would have additioual value for the reader if Icould have copied what he 

 said; but as it was in the form of letters, and not intendedj for publication, this 

 was impossible. 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XVIII 24 



