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SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL, AND CEREMOISTIALi LIFE 159
taking 4 and the opponent 46. If the opponent of the guesser has
2 and the guesser makes 2, the latter takes all of the sticks, but the
other has a chance to guess.
Romans is our only authority for the following diversion which
recalls our use of jackstones
The women also have a game where they take a small stick, or something
else off the ground after having thrown up a small ball which they are to catch
again, having picked up the other ; they are fond of it, but ashamed to be seen
at it."'
Our earliest authority tells us that they " have a game with four
pieces of cane " which we may surmise to have resembled the games
played with kernels of corn, about which Culin and Bushnell both
have something to say. Culin, who witnessed this as it was played
near Mandeville, La., says that eight grains of white corn were
used, charred on one side.
These are used as dice in the corn game, baskatanje [baska ta° chi, " corn
game"]. Two or more men play, throwing the corn with the hand upon the
ground. The throws are either white, tobeh, or black, losah, up. The game is
twenty-five, and the counts are as follows : All black up, untachaina, counts 8
all white up, 8 ; seven white up, untokalo, 7 ; six white up, hanali, 6 ; five white
up, tutslata, 5 ; four white up, oshta, 4 ; three white up, tuchaina, 3 ; two white
up, takalok, 2
; one white up, chofa, 1.**
Bushnell describes it as follows, incorporating a comparison with
the description given by Culin:
Tanje boska, or corn game.—This was played, the writer was informed, with
either five or seven kernels of corn blackened on one side. Holding all the
grains in one hand, the players tossed them on the ground, each player hav-
ing three throws. The one making the greatest number of points in the
aggregate, won. Each " black " turned up counted 1 point ; all " white " turned
up counted either 5 or 7 points, according to the number of kernels used. Any
number of persons could play at the same time, but usually there were only two.
Culin, who witnessed this game at Mandeville, some ten miles from Bayou
Lacomb, in 1901, described it as played with eight grains of corn ; hence it seems
evident that no regular number was employed. The count, as described by
Culin, is also somewhat different from that now followed at Bayou Lacomb.^
The same writer adds some notes on a few comparatively trivial
games played in Louisiana
During the hot months of the year a favorite pastime of the boys and men
consisted in trying to swim blindfolded a wide stream to a certain point
on the opposite bank. The first to reach the goal was declared the winner.
A somewhat similar amusement participated in by the boys and young men
consisted in rolling down hills while wrapped and tied in blankets or skins,
the first to reach a certain line being the winner. As there are few hills in
98Roirans, Nat. Hist. E. and W. Fla., p. 81.
»8 Twenty-fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 146.
1 Bull. 48, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 19.