These people have only one game which appears to be of the nature of gambling. It is played with the twisters and marline spikes used for backing the bow, and already described, though Lieut. Ray says he has seen it played with any bits of stick or bone. I never had an opportunity of watching a game of this sort played, as it is not often played at the village. It is a very popular amusement at the deer-hunting camps, where Lieut. Ray often saw it played. According to him the players are divided into sides, who sit on the ground about 3 yards apart, each side sticking up one of the marline spikes for a mark to throw the twisters at. Six of the latter, he believes, make a full set. One side tosses the whole set one at a time at the opposite stake, and the points which they make are counted up by their opponents from the position of the twisters as they fall. He did not learn how the points were reckoned, except that twisters with a mark on them counted differently from the plain ones, or how long the game lasted, each side taking its turn of casting at the opposite stake. He, however, got the impression that the winning side kept the twisters belonging to their opponents. Mr. Nelson informs me in a letter that a similar game is played with the same implements at Norton Sound.
No. 56532 [9], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a bag full of these tools as used for playing this game. It contains 18 twisters, of different patterns, and 7 marline spikes. The bag is of membrane, perhaps a bladder. It is ovoid in shape, all in one piece, with a long opening in one side, which is closed by a piece of sinew braid about 40 inches long. This is knotted by one end round a fold of membrane at one end of the mouth, and when the bag is shut up is wrapped round the middle of it.
Some of these people have learned what cards are from the Nunatañmiun, though they do not know how to use them. They described how they were used by the “Nunatañmiun,” however, going through the motions of dealing cards. They told us that the latter played a great deal, and “gave much.” This “giving much” evidently referred to gambling, for they told Capt. Herendeen how two of the “Nunatañmiun” would sit down to play, one with a big pile of furs and one without any, and when they got up the furs would all belong to the other man.
Fig. 364 (No. 56531 [21]) represents some of a bunch of 25 little ivory images which were strung on a bit of seal thong. One is a neatly carved fox, 2.7 inches long, and the rest are ducks or geese, rather roughly carved, with flat bellies. The largest of these is 1.3 inches long and the smallest 0.8 inch. These were purchased at Plover Bay, eastern Siberia, during our brief visit in August, 1881, and were supposed to be merely works of art. I was, however, very much interested on my return to Washington to find that Dr. Franz Boas had brought from Cumberland Gulf a number of precisely similar images, which are there used for playing a game of the nature of “jackstones.” The player tosses up a handful of these images, and scores points for the number that sit upright when they fall.[484] It is therefore quite likely that they are used for a similar purpose at Plover Bay. If this be so, it is a remarkable point of similarity between these widely separated Eskimo, for I can learn nothing of a similar custom at any intermediate point.
Fig. 364.—Game of fox and geese, from Plover Bay.
Fig. 365.—Dancing cap.