PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
369 
are tousse, called by the Spaniards pares y nones, odd or even ; escon- 
dido, or hunt the slipper ; and takersia. 
'J'he first, though sometimes played as in England, generally con- 
sists in concealing a piece of wood in one hand, and holding out both 
for the guessing party to declare in which it is contained. The in- 
tense interest that is created by its performance has been amusingly 
described by Perouse. The second, escondido, needs no description ; 
the last, takersia, requires some skill to play well, and consists in rolling 
a circular piece of wood with a hole in its centre along the ground, and 
throwing a spear through it as it rolls. If the spear pierces the hole, 
it counts ten towards the game ; and if it arrests the wood in such a 
manner that it falls upon the spear, two is reckoned. It is a sport well 
calculated to improve the art of throwing the spear: but the game 
requires more practice to play it w^ell than the Indians usually bestow 
upon it. 
At some of the missions they pursue a custom said to be of great 
antiquity among the aborigines, and which appears to afford them 
much enjoyment. A mud house, or rather a large oven, called temeschal 
by the Spaniards, is built in a circular form, with a small entrance and 
an aperture in the top for the smoke to escape through. Several persons 
enter this place quite naked and make a fire near the door, which they 
continue to feed with wood as long as they can bear the heat. In a 
short time they are thrown into a most profuse perspiration they wring 
their hair, and scrape their skin with a sharp piece of wood or an iron 
hoop, in the same manner as coach horses are sometimes treated when 
they come in heated ; and then plunge into a river or pond of cold 
water, which they always take care shall be near the temeschal. 
A similar practice to this is mentioned by Shelekoff as being in use 
among the Ivonaghi, a tribe of Indians near Cook’s River, who have a 
method of heating the oven with hot stones, by which they avoid the 
discomfort occasioned by the wood smoke ; and, instead of scraping their 
skin with iron or bone, rub themselves with grass and twigs. 
Formerly the missions had small villages attached to them, in which 
the Indians lived in a very filthy state ; these have almost all disappeared 
since Vancouver’s visit, and the converts are disposed of in huts as before 
3 B 
CHAP. 
XIII. 
Nov. 
182G. 
