68 
dice in a game like the modern Iroquois deer button and peaehstone 
games (See Culm, 1:721-729, and 2:105-119). The concave and convex 
surfaces of most of the disks derived from potsherds would serve to dis- 
tinguish one side from the other in counting the throws; those with one 
side retaining the decoration of the sherd possibly counting more than those 
with plain sides. Possibly the value of the sides of the disk seen in Plate 
XV, figure 16, was higher still, because both are marked. The concave 
side of the disk with the faintly marked X possibly also counted more 
than those not so marked. 
Although we have no information respecting such a game among the 
Iroquois, it is possible that the disks were used in a game like chess; 
potsherd disks are still so used by the Zuni Indians of New Mexico. 1 
Cup and Pin Game 
Nine objects made from penultimate or middle phalanges, and thirty- 
eight others derived from proximal phalanges of the deer, of both right and 
left sides of the foot, may have been used in games (See Plate XV, figures 
19-23). The removal of the epiphysis of the proximal end of eleven 
specimens derived from phalanges of young deer gave a scalloped edge to 
this end of the bone (Plate XV, figure 20). One of the specimens made 
from a middle phalanx, in addition to the holes through the ends, has a 
large hole broken through one side. One specimen has a large hole at the 
proximal end only and is probably unfinished, and another, which also 
appears unfinished, has a hole through the distal facet only. Thirty-four 
specimens have a hole through the joint at each end, that through the 
proximal articular facet being much larger than the one through the distal 
end — in fact, in most of the specimens, the opening is of the same diameter 
as the marrow cavity. The holes through the distal articular facet are 
either round or irregularly oblong and countersunk. Two specimens, in 
addition to the holes through the articular ends, have two lateral holes 
through the walls of the larger end of the phalanx. 2 Three others have 
four lateral holes 3 (figures 22 and 23), two of the holes in the one in figure 
22 piercing the back wall of the bone. Another specimen has an unfinished 
hole on three sides, and a broken specimen retains part of two holes and 
probably had three or four perforations before it became broken. The 
lateral holes in these objects are countersunk; none of them is perfectly 
round. The sides of the specimen in figure 23 are flattened and it is 
almost square in cross-section. Three other specimens differ from those 
described in having the proximal joint removed and a countersunk hole 
through the distal articular facet. The severed edge of the one in figure 19 
has been ground smooth. 
Parts of the surface of most of the specimens are glossy, possibly from 
long handling. The edges of the holes at both ends of most of these 
objects are slightly worn and polished; the edges of the lateral holes of 
two specimens are considerably worn. 
^ulin, 1: 878. The game, however, does not seem to be of native origin, for Culin (2: 31) says: "Games of pure 
skill and calculation, such as chess, are entirely absent.” 
2 An Assiniboine Indian cup and pin game, with the sides of the cups or units similarly perforated, is illustrated 
by Lowie (fig. 3). 
■A specimen from a village site on lot 18, Gull River range, Bexley tp., Victoria co„ Ont., has eight lateral holes 
(See Boyle, 11, fig. 31). Another, from a site in Somerville tp., in the same county, has a single lateral hole. 
