Fig. 11 a (50-6148 g, a), b (50-6147 a, c).
Gaming Bows and Arrows. Length of Bow, 97 cm.

One simple game is opened by a player shooting an arrow into a bank of earth which in turn becomes the target for all. The one placing an arrow nearest the target arrow wins all the arrows shot in the round. In a more complicated game one arrow is set up beside a bank and used as a target as in the preceding. The boy making the best shot gathers up all the arrows at the target and shoots them at the grass target (Fig. 11). Each arrow striking this target is his, otherwise they revert to their owners. The grass target must be held in the hand grasping the belly of the bow and the arrow. By a swing of the arms it is tossed forward and upward and must be hit while in the air to win.[[40]]

Another game spoken of as the sliding arrows was in favor. No bow was used, the so-called arrows being but straight slender sticks about 80 cm. long, neither sharpened nor feathered. The set in the collection contains 39 sticks, 28 of which are plain, 4 burned black at one end and 7 decorated with a spiral burned band. We have no information as to the significance of these divisions. In the game the players take an equal number of sticks. They are thrown by hand, poising them on a small heap of earth. The player throwing the greatest distance, takes all the sticks thrown. As in other games, the play continues until one has all the sticks.

Fig. 12 (50-6146). A Wooden Dart. Length, 90 cm.

The casting of wooden darts, or arrows, is another boys’ game of the same general type. The set of darts in the collection contains twelve willow sticks about a meter long and 1.8 cm. in diameter. Each stick is sharpened at one end and split into quarters at the other, Fig. 12. These darts are usually decorated and to some are attached tufts of horse hair. In the game the darts are thrown from the hand. First one is cast into a clump of bushes and the players in turn cast at it as a target. The last throw wins the darts. The use of the hair tufts was explained as an aid to the count; thus, if several darts fell about equally near the target dart, the one whose hair tuft touched it was declared the winner.

We secured vague accounts of another game in which arrows were shot at a bundle of arrows, the best shot taking the bundle.

Fig. 13 (50-6165). The Wheel Game. Diameter, 41 cm.