WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 3G7 



time; but they generally pass their nights in gambling. Mr. Drayton, 

 while at the falls, obtained a knowledge of some of their games. The 

 women usually play during the day at a game resembling dice. The 

 implements are made of the incisor teeth of the beaver, and four of 

 these are used, which are engraved 

 on two sides with different figures, 

 and the figures on two of the teeth 

 are alike : these are taken in the 

 hand and thrown on a mat, the 

 players sitting on it, opposite to 



one another. They are of the shape represented in the cut. If all the 

 blank sides come up, it counts nothing; if all the engraved or marked 

 sides, it counts two ; if two blanks and two differently marked sides, it 

 counts nothing ; but if two with like marks, it counts one. The game 

 is generally twenty, which are marked with pieces of stick ; the tens 

 are noted with a smaller stick. This game is played for strings of 

 dentalium, called by them "ahikia;" each string is about two feet long, 

 and will pass for considerable value, as the shells are difficult to pro- 

 cure : ten of them are said to be worth a beaver-skin. 



The men and boys play a game with small bows and arrows : a 

 wheel, about a foot in diameter, is wound round with grass, and is 

 rolled over smooth ground ; the players are divided into two parties : 

 one rolls the wheel, while the other shoots the arrow at it. If he sticks 

 his arrow into the wheel, he holds it on the ground edgewise towards 

 the one who rolled it, who, if he shoots his arrow into it, wins his 

 opponent's arrow ; and this goes on by turns. 



Another game is played by a party of men and boys, in the follow- 

 ing manner : two poles are taken, six or eight feet long, and wound 

 round with grass ; these are set up about fifty feet apart. Each player 

 has a spear, which he throws in his turn. Whichever side, after a 

 number of throws, puts the greatest number of spears in their oppo- 

 nent's pole, wins the game. The usual bet among the men is a cotton 

 shirt. 



Mr. Drayton also paid a visit to the Indian village on the Klackamus 

 river, which is about three miles from the falls, in company with Mr. 

 Waller. The village is one and a half miles up the Klackamus, and 

 its inhabitants number about forty-five individuals. Mr. Waller went 

 there to preach, and about half the inhabitants of the village attended. 

 The chief was the interpreter, and was thought to have done his office 

 in rather a waggish sort of manner. Preaching to the natives through 

 an interpreter is at all times difficult, and especially so when the 

 speaker has to do it in the Indian jargon of the country. This village 



