Indian Games, Dances & Native Songs - online book

Native American Ceremonials, Sports, and Songs with Sheet Music, Lyrics & Commentary

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INDIAN GAMES AND DANCES                87
two parts, well covered up by the material. He con­tinues to make passes with his hands as though invoking mysterious forces and to shuffle around the two piles of material in which the disks are hidden. Suddenly a player points to one of the piles; the player at the end ceases to shuffle and sends the disks concealed in the pile rolling down the mat to the messenger standing at the other end, who looks to see if the "chief" is among the disks rolled toward him. If he finds it, all of the players on the side of the guesser give the victory shout and the messenger goes to the small mat, brings one of the tally-sticks and stands it before the successful guesser. Then the messenger rolls the disks back to the other end of the mat where the person sits who hides the disks. That player begins again his passes and movements as he mixes together the nine disks and hides them under the material; then he divides the disks and the material under which they are hidden into two piles, shuffles them about until a player points to a pile, when he at once stops shuffling and sends the disks under the pile pointed at rolling down the mat to the messenger. If the "chief" is not found among the disks, the side to which the unsuccessful guesser belongs loses a point, and the messenger takes from the small mat a tally-stick and stands it at the end of the row of players on the opposite side. The disks are then sent spinning over the mat to the player who hides them. He mixes up the disks, hides them, shuffles the piles until another guess is made. If that guess should be by a player on the side that had just lost a point, and the guess prove to be successful — that is, the pile pointed
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