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singing being lcd olí by an oíd cbicf in a crackcd volco wbilo lio assidu- 
ously beat bis drum. 
The women drew and boiled water for diluting tho drink after tho 
íirst heavy draught round, but otherwise took no part in the feast. 
In case of wordy disputes or maudlin helplessness the women interfere 
or assist. 
At another feast (from the general appearance being that of a 
girl's puberty feast) in addition to the drums was a “ professional ” 
dancer — a girl of fine figure, not tall or of striking good looks, but 
physically strong and of tremendous endurance, danced for hours at 
a stretch and with short intervals from morning to night, the weird 
and difficult step, bearing in her right hand a tall bamboo with deer- 
hoofs tied at the top, and singing the peculiar chant so difficult of 
imitation by the European. Every now and again some of the little 
girls went and joined her, but throughout the greater part of the day 
from sunrise to sunset, backwards and forwards in front of the huts, 
she continued her lonely dance to the same step and tune. For this 
she received in due time adequate remuneration. This was quite 
novel to my experience of Indian dances, both as regards the payment 
and the solitary dance ; the usual custom is performed by relatives 
of the pubescent, who forin groups and dance in regular turns. Boys 
dressed as devils feign an attack on the girl sitting in her booth, who are 
warded oíf by the singing women. 
In common with the other Chaco tribes the gambling game knówn 
to the Lengua-Mascoy under the ñame of Iiás-tawa (Toba, Soka ; 
Choroti, Suki ; Suhin, Sukák ; which are fonns of the word Sikkyi, 
the ñame given to the dice employed in the Lengua-Mascoy language) 
is also indulgcd in by tho Choroti. Tho game is played with four 
dice, made of smooth pieces of wood a little bigger than a finger (which 
it represents) with a fíat and round side. These are thrown on to a 
hide and the score is made accordingly. Even numbers count, and the 
player continúes till he throws an odd, e.g. three fíats and a round. 
Four rounds in Lengua-Mascoy (and in many of the dialects) is called 
a Tawa, a ñame I believe to be connected with the Quechua word for 
“ four ” (tahua). The score is kept with arrows stuck in a prepared 
scoring place made in the ground in semi-circular form, and consists 
of two “ wells ” at either end, two “ wells ” in the centre, and the 
intervening space filled with a number of grooves cut out of the 
ground. 
Into these spaces are placed the object or its representativo gambled 
for by each player. The wells must be avoided in scoring if possible. 
The score has to run from one end to the other and back again. On 
the return journey the player scoring into a place containing say a 
M 
