While walking out the girls generally toss stones or chips in the air and strive to keep at least two of them up at once. The Eskimo often practice this also, and, as it appears to be a general source of amusement among the Innuit, I suspect that the Indian borrowed it from them.
A third game of ball, called igdlukitaqtung, is played with small balls tossed up alternately from the right to the left, one always being in the air.ESKIMO (ITA). Smith sound, Greenland.
The Adlet among them also juggle, some with as many as five pebbles at once.
SHOSHONI. Wind River reservation, Wyoming. (Cat. no. 36882, Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania.)
Collected by the writer in 1900. They are used by women in a
juggling game, described by Dr George A. Dorsey [4] as follows:
Occasionally rounded, water-worn stones are used. The Shoshoni name for the game is na-wá-ta-pi ta-na-wa-ta-pi, meaning to throw with the hand. The usual number of balls used is three, although two or four may be used. The object is to keep one or more of the balls, according to the number used, in the air by passing them upward from one hand to the other, and vice versa. after the fashion or our well-known jugglers. The balls are about an inch in diameter, and are painted according to the fancy of the owner, one of the sets collected having been painted blue, another red, while a third set was white. Contests of skill with these balls are occasions of considerable betting among the women, stakes of importance often being wagered. The usual play of the game is that two or more women agree upon some objective point, such as a tree or tipi to which they direct their steps, juggling the balls as they go. The individual who first arrives at the goal without having dropped one of the balls, or without having a mishap of any sort, is the winner of the contest... All Shoshoni who were interrogated on this point declared that the art of juggling had long been known by the women, and that before the advent of the whites into Wyoming contests for stakes among the women was one of their commonest forms of gambling. This game was also observed among the Bannocks, the Utes and the Palutes...UINTA UTE. White Rocks, Utah. (Cat. no. 37121, Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania.)
Collected in 1903 by the writer, to whom they were described as
follows:
Women make balls of red clay as big as hens' eggs for the boys to gamble with. They use two, throwing them up and keeping one in the air. They keep count, and the one who scores the highest wins. The game is called ha it-zu-lu-lu-na-wai; the ball hai-muk-kia-ma-wai.
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