Each person has ten little sticks or counters at the opening of the game. One holds the “Jupaiauna,” and begins action by placing his hands behind his back and deciding in which hand to hold the bone for that time; next, he closes his hands firmly, and brings them out before his breast. He holds them back downward, the little finger of each hand touching that of the other. The person sitting opposite guesses where the bone is; the other opens both hands then, and shows his palms. If this bone is in the hand indicated by the guesser, he wins; if not, he loses. A game is finished when one side holds the twenty counters; that is, when one side has won the ten little sticks given to the other at the opening of the game.
As Hehku sat with her back to the west, her right hand was south and her left north. When her opponent guessed south, if the bone was in her right hand she sang it into her left (the north),—literally, enchanted it north. If the bone was in her left hand, she let it stay there, and thus she won in every case.
Jupka, by limiting the game to one guess, and by his quibble of words, proved himself a keener trickster than Hehku, whose predicament is described fairly well by the Russian saying, “Kosá nashlá na kámen,” the scythe met a stone; or the biter bitten, as we might say.
THE FIRST BATTLE IN THE WORLD AND THE MAKING OF THE YANAS
The beginning of this myth is somewhat similar to that of “Olelbis.” A messenger is sent to invite the Master of Flint to come and show the Mapchemaina, or first people, how to kill deer. Kaltsauna, the owner of flint, is like Katkatchila of the Wintus; he is transformed later into a lizard. In character he is different, being old and testy though liberal, while Katkatchila is affable, but wonderfully tenacious of his weapon, and prizing it so highly that when the flint is stolen he does not hesitate to set the whole world on fire.
Kaltsauna put the various kinds of flint in places where they are found to this day, and taught the first people how to make arrow points.
These hunts of the first people or gods are, for the Yanas, the great prototypes of hunting. To this day all sorts of game are under the control of certain spirits of the first people, whose favor is essential to success in hunting.
The story of Howichinaipa’s change into a little bird gives a good case of forced metamorphosis, and also a good picture of the stern spirit of Indian vengeance inherited from the first people.
Vengeance is a sacred duty which they were not free to neglect under any consideration. “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will have it.”
Machperkami, the tiny dog in the hair of Tuina (the sun), is an exact substitute for Winishuyat of the Wintus.