Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical SketchDenig, Edwin Thompson
History
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch
Denig, Edwin Thompson
Assiniboine Indians; Indians of North America -- Missouri River Valley
Most of their leisure time either by night or by day among all these
nations is devoted to gambling in various ways, and such is their
infatuation that it is the cause of much distress and poverty in
families. For this reason the name of being a desperate gambler forms a
great obstacle in the way of a young man getting a wife. Many quarrels
arise among them from this source, and we are well acquainted with an
Indian who a few years since killed another, because after winning all
he had he refused to put up his wife to be played for. Every day and
night in the Soldiers’ Lodge not occupied by business matters presents
gambling in various ways all the time; also in many private lodges the
song of hand gambling and the rattle of the bowl dice can be heard.
Women are as much addicted to the practice as men, though their games
are different, and, not being in possession of much property, their
losses, although considerable to them, are not so distressing. The
principal game played by men is that of the Bowl or Cos-soo´, which is
a bowl made of wood with a flat bottom, a foot or less in diameter,
the rim turned up about 2 inches, and highly polished inside and out.
A drawing and description of the arithmetical principles of this game
is now attached in this place. (Pl. 72.) The manner of counting therein
mentioned is the manner in which we learned it from the Indians, but
the value of each of the articles composing the dice can be and is
changed sometimes in default of some of them being lost and again by
agreement among the players in order to lengthen or shorten the game or
facilitate the counting. However, the best and most experienced hands
play it as it is represented. It can be played between two or four,
that is, either one on each side or two against two. The game has no
limit, unless it is so agreed in the commencement, but this is seldom
done, it being usually understood that the players continue until one
party is completely ruined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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