A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 
Ill 
against the dark spruce brush of the wigwams, on which 
they were liung and spread to dry. Some of the Indians 
were gathered in groups, eagerly playing a sort of a game 
with small bone dice or chips," about as large as one's 
finger. 
The Buttons watched the progress of one of these 
games with much interest. An even number of Indians 
took part — generally six or eight — and sat in two rows, 
facing each other. One of the little pieces of bone was 
marked in a peculiar way, and was held, in common with 
the other pieces, out of sight in the hands of one of the 
players. The whole group then commenced a sort of 
low, groaning sing-song, with their elbows and heads 
wagging, until one of the five suddenly pointed to the 
hand of his vis-d-vis, which he thought held the marked 
piece. If he was right, his side tallied one, with a 
peeled willow stick thrust in the sand ; if wrong, the 
count went to the other party, and the sing-song com- 
menced again. It was plain that the Indians were gam- 
bling, and in dead earnest, for they bet and delivered 
over fish, horn implements, birch-bark dishes, and even 
the clothes on their backs. 
As the night grew more dusky, and the Indians became 
more and more excited in their games, the scene was a 
singularly striking one — the dark forms bending eagerly 
forward, and swaying to the weird music of their wailing 
song, the firelight now lighting up their swarthy faces, 
now leaving them obscured in the gathering shadows — 
