AA EA Oe NE Cae aL a ty Sp ee Rea Soy 
1878.] Anthropology. 479 
after years of exposure or burial. Many of our American tribes 
play games in which four, five, or even six small bodies are 
employed, upon one or both sides of which lines or other char- 
acters are cut or burned to serve the purpose of ready identifica- 
tion. The Dakotas make beautiful specimens from the seeds of 
Prunus virginianus, upon which lines are burned so as to give the 
stone the appearance of a beetle. 
These stone relics were not employed in hunting, by throwing 
at birds or game, as some have ventured to suggest, as the time 
and labor employed in their manufacture would have been more 
than lost. 1 doubt if any were suspended as ornaments or 
charms, as the constant wearing of a cord would eventually leave 
its impression upon the sharp edges, and then for a warrior to be 
among a sub-tribe of Utes in south-western Colorado. The 
Specimen is little more than half an inch thick, having a perfora- 
tion in the centre around which are cut a series of narrow circles 
extending nearly to the outer edge. The opposite side is per- 
fectly smooth. As this was used in gaming, by tossing into the 
air and betting upon the side to turn up, we are led to suppose 
that Similar relics were used by other tribes for similar purposes. 
That the relics of the mound-builders are of much superior 
workmanship is granted. None of the implements of the mod- 
ern Red race will compare with them, therefore we can scarcely 
expect to find any relics of this class in as good condition, or as 
perfectly finished. ; 
The larger discoids were used for another style of amusement. 
The materials employed in their manufacture are usually of the 
hardest species öf stones or rocks, as they were in greater danger 
of being broken. These larger discoidal stones were undoubtedly 
used in playing what is now termed the chunge or tchunge game. 
To illustrate my reason for the supposition I shall submit some 
remarks and references from a recent report made to Prof. F. V. 
Hayden.! Catlin? gives a description of the “hung-kee game as 
1 Miscellaneous ethnographic observations on Indians inhabiting Nevada, Califor- 
nia and Arizona, W.J. Hoffman. U.S. Geolog. and Geog. Survey of the Terri- 
tories. 1876, . 461-478. : 
2 Illus. of the ea” Customs and Conditions of the N. American Indians, etc. 
loth edition, Vol i, p. 132, pl. 59. London. 1866. 
* Travels in the interior of North America. London, 1843, p. 358. bese 
_ *Seven years residence in the Great Deserts of North America. Vol. ii, p. 197. 
„ondon. 1 i ; ; 
5 Hist. of Am. Indians, etc. Page 401 ef seg. London. 1775. 
