With the black mark I win the game.
This song is from the northern Arapaho. The author of it, in his visit to the spirit world, found his former friends playing the old game of the bä′qati wheel, which was practically obsolete among the prairie tribes, but which is being revived since the advent of the Ghost dance. As it was a favorite game with the men in the olden times, a great many of the songs founded on these trance visions refer to it, and the wheel and sticks are made by the dreamer and carried in the dance as they sing.
The game is played with a wheel (bä′qati, “large wheel”) and two pairs of throwing sticks (qa′qa-u′nûtha). The Cheyenne call the wheel ä′ko′yo or äkwi′u, and the sticks hoo′isi′yonots. It is a man’s game, and there are three players, one rolling the wheel, while the other two, each armed with a pair of throwing sticks, run after it and throw the sticks so as to cross the wheel in a certain position. The two throwers are the contestants, the one who rolls the wheel being merely an assistant. Like most Indian games, it is a means of gambling, and high stakes are sometimes wagered on the result. It is common to the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Sioux, and probably to all the northern prairie tribes, but is not found among the Kiowa or Comanche in the south.
The wheel is about 18 inches in diameter, and consists of a flexible young tree branch, stripped of its bark and painted, with the two ends fastened together with sinew or buckskin string. At equal distances around the circumference of the wheel are cut four figures, the two opposite each other constituting a pair, but being distinguished by different colors, usually blue or black and red, and by lines or notches on the face. These figures are designated simply by their colors. Figures of birds, crescents, etc., are sometimes also cut or painted upon the wheel, but have nothing to do with the game. (See [plate cxi].)
The sticks are light rods, about 30 inches long, tied in pairs by a peculiar arrangement of buckskin strings, and distinguished from one another by pieces of cloth of different colors fastened to the strings. There is also a pile of tally sticks, usually a hundred in number, about the size of lead pencils and painted green, for keeping count of the game. The sticks are held near the center in a peculiar manner between the fingers of the closed hand. When the wheel is rolled, each player runs from the same side, and endeavors to throw the sticks so as to strike the wheel in such a way that when it falls both sticks of his pair shall be either over or under a certain figure. It requires dexterity to do this, as the string has a tendency to strike the wheel in such a way as to make one stick fall under and the other over, in which case the throw counts for nothing. The players assign their own value to each figure, the usual value being five points for one and ten for the other figure, with double that number for a throw which crosses the two corresponding figures, and one hundred tallies to the game.
The wheel-and-stick game, in some form or another, was almost universal among our Indian tribes. Another game among the prairie tribes is played with a netted wheel and a single stick or arrow, the effort being to send the arrow through the netting as nearly as possible to the center or bull’s-eye. This game is called ana′wati′n-hati, “playing wheel,” by the Arapaho.
50. Ani′äsa′kua′na dă′chäbi′hati′tani
Ani′äsa′kua′na dă′chäbi′hati′tani bä′qati′bä,
Ani′äsa′kua′na dă′chäbi′hati′tani bä′qati′bä.
Ni′ati′biku′thahu′ bä′qatihi,