Part 5

“These belong to you. Carry them.”

The second woman kicked the bones with her foot and said contemptuously to the third woman:—

“These are the bones of your relatives. Carry them.”

The third woman kicked them with her foot, and, turning to the fourth woman, said: “These bones belong to you. Carry them.”

And the fourth woman answered: “This is the skull of my sister-in-law. You should not be disrespectful. I will carry it along so that you shall respect it.”

The women wore a skin belted in at the waist, making a skirt of one part, and leaving the other long enough to cover the back and to draw over the head, and the last woman put it between her back and the blanket, saying: “I shall carry it.”

But after a time she wearied of carrying it, and she put it down by the roadside in a place where no one would molest it. But the skull followed them, singing:—

“There were four women passing along here. One of them is my sister-in-law.”

The women heard it singing, and ran. When they camped for the night the skull came up and destroyed the first woman. It bit her and she died.

When the three women awoke and found one dead, they fled from the skull, but it followed, singing:—

“There were four women passing along here. One of them is my sister-in-law.”

They ran away from it and camped for the night, but when they awoke in the morning they found another woman had been killed by the skull, so again they fled, but again they heard it singing:—

“There were four women passing along here. One of them is my sister-in-law.”

Next morning only one woman awoke, and the skull came up to her and said:—

“Sister-in-law, carry me again.”

She dared not refuse, and after they had gone a short distance the skull said:—

“Look among the trees until you find one where the raccoons have their nest. Then if you are hungry you shall have something to eat. Look for a certain tree, find the hollow place where the raccoon goes in to its nest and drop me in after it.”

The woman did as she was told and she dropped the skull in. It somehow killed the raccoon. After it had got to the bottom of the tree it called:—

“Cut a hole in this tree and let me out.”

The woman cut the hole; first she took the raccoon out from the tree, and then she took the skull out. She cooked the raccoon, then she took the stomach of the raccoon for a bag, and melted down the raccoon fat, put it in the stomach bag and sewed it up. She hid it from the skull; she had a purpose in doing this, and the skull did not know that she had done it, and she carried the bag with her. They stopped twice more during their journey; each time the woman did as the skull directed, and each time she made the bag and filled it and sewed it up, and the skull did not see her.

The fourth time the woman hunted for a very large tree, and when she had found it she dropped the skull into the hole and then ran off by herself. The skull called: “I have killed the raccoon. Now let me out.” No answer. Then the skull knew the woman had left, and said:—

“Wherever you go I shall find you and have my revenge.”

It commenced to gnaw a place in the tree to let itself out, and it took it a day and a half to make a hole large enough to get through. When it came out, it went along, saying:—

“Wherever you go I shall find you and have my revenge.”

By and by the woman heard the skull saying that, and she took the bag of raccoon grease and threw it at the skull; it went all over it, and it could not go on, and while it stopped to clean itself the woman ran on ahead.

But the skull caught up to her, and she heard it say:—

“Wherever you go I shall find you and have my revenge.”

Then the woman stopped and threw another bag at the skull, and it had to stop and clean itself.

The third time it caught up to her, and she threw another bag of grease at it. But the fourth time the woman went on till she came to a woods, but the skull could not reach the woods until the next morning for it had to cross a creek, and so it went back on the side of the hill and had to roll down and so cross the creek. The woman found an old man in the forest making bows and arrows, and she asked him to protect her from the skull, but he paid no attention.

“Brother, help me! Protect me!” But he took no notice of her.

“Uncle, protect me!” He paid no attention.

“Father, protect me from the skull!” He did not notice.

“Grandfather,” she called, “Help me! Protect me!”

“That is the relationship,” he said. He was an immense man, and his long hair was done up in a big knot on the back of his head. He told her to untie it and get in there, so she did so. And he told her to sit there and wait until he was ready. After a while he went on making bows and arrows.

Presently the skull came up and went round and round the old man, saying:—

“Old man give me my woman.”

But the old man was silent. Then, said the skull:—

“Give me the woman I was running after.”

But the old man would not answer.

When the skull asked for the woman the fourth time, the old man said:—

“I am tired of you.” So he took a bow and broke the skull in pieces, and he said to the woman:—

“Get down and gather up these pieces. Pile them up, and set them on fire. After you set them on fire, whatever you see, don’t you touch it. You will be punished if you do.”

When the woman saw the fire going down she espied a comb.[7] She picked it up and hid it in her blanket, but it burned her side so badly that she died. The old man said:—

“I told you not to pick up anything, but you did so. I punish you. Disobedience brings its own punishment.”

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“When Carey told it to me, he said the old man hit the skull and it went into the air; when it came down it turned into knives, forks, thimbles, threads, awls, wax, needles, and scissors. The man told the woman to come down from his hair but not to pick up anything that was on the ground; if she did he would punish her. And the old man went off and sat down under a tree. She tried to pick up a pair of scissors; when she did so her hands dropped off. That is the way Carey told it.”

“Carey did not get it right. This is a very old story, and at the time it was first told we never knew of such things as knives, forks, awls, or scissors. Carey has added that, or some of the younger people have told it that way because they now use these things. But I have told it to you the old way, and that is the right way.”

_George Truman Kercheval._

EXHIBIT OF GAMES IN THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

Primitive Religions, and Folk-lore, including Games, are the subject of a special section in the Anthropological Building at the Columbian Exposition. This section, which is known as the “Section of Religions, Games, and Folk-lore,” is located upon the main floor, where the exhibit occupies a series of cases on the south side and a line of flat cases which extend across the entire building.

Folk-lore is the name given to the material which has come down to us in the sayings and customs of mankind. Its study, for which no special name has been devised, is an important branch of the science of anthropology.

The chief object of the collection is to show things which illustrate folk traditions and customs. The field being a vast one, the collection has been practically restricted to the subject of games. The basis of the collection was formed in the Museum of Archaeology of the University of Pennsylvania during the past two years. The University’s collection has been supplemented by exhibits from individuals and the leading manufacturers of games in this country.

The objects are classified and arranged for comparative study, games of the same general sort being placed together. They are contained in twelve table cases running from the southernmost entrance on the west side to the corresponding entrance on the east side. Puzzles and the simple games of children commence the series.

CASE I. PUZZLES, CHILDREN’S GAMES, MANCALA.

The ingenious objects which we designate as “puzzles” are represented by about one hundred and twenty-five specimens exhibited by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. They begin with a collection of East Indian puzzles “invented” by Aziz Hussan of Saharanpore, among which may be seen many types of puzzles that are common in Europe and America. The Chinese puzzles of wood, bone, and ivory follow them. Chinese puzzles, long a household word, are very limited in number. Those which are made for export are invariable in form, and consist of the familiar “Ring Puzzle,” the “Geometrical Puzzle,” and the “Dissected Cube.” Their Chinese names are all descriptive, and the “Ring Puzzle,” which they call “The Nine Interlinked Rings,” was probably borrowed by Chinese from India. The number of types in the entire series of puzzles is surprisingly small. The one that was revived some years since under the name of the “Fifteen Puzzle,” and which was described by an English writer some two hundred years ago, has suggested a large group. “Pigs in Clover,” an American invention, is the most recent addition to the world’s amusements of this character, and its wide diffusion and popularity is shown here in a great variety of specimens from different countries.

Some of the simpler amusements of children are suggested by the objects on the north side of this case. Here are to be seen Mr. William Wells Newell’s “Games and Songs of American Children,” and “The Counting-out Rhymes of Children,” by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton, two books which may be regarded as classical in their particular field. Mr. Pak Yong Kiu, of the Corean Commission to the Columbian Exposition, has furnished the following interesting addition to the collection of children’s counting-out rhymes:—

Hau al ta Tu al da Som a chun Na al da, Yuk nong, Ku chi, Pol ta, Chong kun, Ko tu ra, Biong.

The wide diffusion of the custom of using counting-out rhymes among children, and the general resemblance they bear to each other, present problems of curious interest.

Among the imitative games of children, there are few more interesting than the Toros or mock bull-fight of Spanish boys. A wicker mask from Madrid, representing the bull’s head, which is used in this sport, is suspended beside this case, within which may be seen the toy _espadas_ or swords and the _banderillios_. Tops are shown to be of great antiquity and of very general use over the earth. Their age is illustrated by a wooden top from the Fayum, Egypt, discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie at Kahûn, belonging to 2800 B. C. They were common among the American Indians, north and south. A number of balls of baked clay and stone, which were whipped in a game on the ice, represent the primitive tops of the Sioux, while a more recent Sioux top of wood with a peg of brass shows foreign influences. Among the Omahas tops were called _Moo de de ska_, a name which Mr. Francis La Flesche says is not descriptive. The explorations conducted for the Department by Mr. George A. Dorsey in Peru have contributed several interesting specimens to this collection. Two prehistoric tops from Ancon are identical in form with the ancient Egyptian top, while another from an ancient grave at Arica is distinguished by a spindle, not unlike the modern tops of Japan. The use of pop-guns among the ancient Peruvians is also shown by two beautifully carved specimens of wood contained in a llama skin pouch, from an ancient grave in Cañete valley. Popguns were used by many if not all of the American Indian tribes. Among the Omahas the children made them of willow branches, and then, by partly stopping one end, would convert them into squirt-guns. The toy squirt-gun sold in the Chicago shops is here shown beside the syringe from India used in the Hindu _Holi_ Festival.

Jackstraws, which are known in England as “Spillikins” and in France as _Les Jonchets_, are next in order. The peculiar Chinese name appended to the Chinese specimens, “Eight Precious Things,” suggests the probability that China was the country from which we derived them.

The remainder of this case is devoted to the implements for a game that holds an unique position among the world’s games, and for which no place could be found in the series that follow. It is variously played with pebbles, shells, and seeds in holes dug in the ground, or upon a board with cup-like depressions. The game appears to be found wherever Arab influence has penetrated. It is very generally played in Africa, in Asia Minor, and in India. Two boards are exhibited, one brought from Jerusalem for the University Museum by Mrs. John Harrison of Philadelphia, and another from the Gaboon River in Africa. The Syrians in the Damascus house in the Turkish village in the Midway Plaisance know it under the name of _Mancala_, and it is a favorite game with the Chief of the Dahomey village, who frequently plays it with his son before his hut in the Plaisance. Among the so-called Dahomeyans this game is called _Madaji_, the board _adjito_, and the seeds which they use, _adji_. It is a game for two persons. As played in Syria, there are several forms of the game. One is called _lâ’b madjnuni_, or the “Crazy Game.” Ninety-eight cowrie shells are used, which are distributed unequally in the fourteen holes in the board, which is placed transversely between the two players. The first player takes all the pieces from the hole at the right of his row and drops them, one at a time, in the first hole on the opposite side, and so on, continuing around the board until the last one is let fall. He thereupon takes all the pieces from that hole and distributes them one by one as before, until, arriving at the last piece, he takes all the pieces again in his hands. This is continued until the last piece dropped either falls into an empty hole or completes two or four in the hole in which it falls. In the latter case the player takes the two or four for his own, as well as the contents of the hole opposite, and should there be two or four in the next hole or holes to the one at which he stopped, he also takes them with those opposite. The players continue in turn, and when the game is finished the one gaining the highest number of cowries wins. If a player’s last piece falls in an empty hole, his turn is ended. Skill is of no avail in this form of the game, the result always being a mathematical certainty, accordingly as the cowries are distributed at the beginning.

CASE II. BALLS, QUOITS, MARBLES.

The antiquity of the ball as an implement of sport is attested by the balls found associated with objects used in other games in old Egypt, where it was known at least 4,700 years ago. Games of ball are common among savage and barbarous people, and ball games of Burma, Siam, India, and Japan, as well as those of the North American Indians, are suggested in this case. With the ball games are the sticks used in a widely diffused game which we commonly know as “Tip-cat.” Tip-cat is played with a block of wood, about six inches in length, which is struck with a small club or bat and knocked into the air. The rules for playing are somewhat complicated, and as far as they have been compared, appear to be much the same all over the earth. The oldest specimen is from Kahûn, Egypt, of 2800 B. C. Tip-cat is known by the Syrians in the Plaisance, who have contributed the sticks they use in the game they call _Hab_. In Persia it is called _Guk tchub_, “frog-wood,” a name given to it, like our name “cat,” from the way the small stick leaps into the air. In China the game is called _Ta-pang_, “to knock the stick,” and the Chinese laborers in the United States call the “cat” _To tsz_, or “Little Peach.” In Japan the game is called _In ten_; the small stick _ko_, “son,” and the long one _oya_, “parent.” In India the game is called _Gutti danda_; in Burma, _Kyitha_, and in Russian _Kosley_, “goat,” a suggestive name like that of Persia and our own name, “cat.”

The wicker baskets or _cestas_ for the Spanish game of ball or _Pelota_, now so popular in Spain, are next shown, with the flat bat used by the Spaniards in ball games. A very ancient English bat for trap ball appears with them, and these are followed by the implements used in the current American and English ball games exhibited by Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Bros. of Chicago. Cricket, Baseball, Football, Golf, Polo, La Crosse and Lawn Tennis, Racket and Battledore and Shuttlecock, are displayed in order, and with the last are exhibited the Zuñi Indian and the Japanese form of this game and the Chinese shuttlecock, which is kicked with the toes. The tossing games comprise Jackstones, Cup and Ball, Grace Hoops, and Quoits, and ring games of various kinds, and include the iron quoits _Rayuelas_, used in Spain. The stone quoit games of the Zuñis, and of the Tarahumara Indians are also exhibited. The North American Indian forms of the Cup and Ball game comprise the _Ar-too-is_, or “match-making” game of the Penobscots, exhibited by Chief Joseph Nicolar of Oldtown Me., and the Sioux game played with the phalangal bones of the deer. The comparatively new game “Tiddledy winks” follows, leading up to a recent German game called the “Newest War Game,” in which the men or “winks” are played upon a board upon which are represented two opposing fortresses. The games of tossing cowries and coins are next suggested, with the game played by Chinese children with olive seeds. Many natural objects are exhibited that are used by children in playing games resembling marbles, to which artificial objects they appear to lead. In Burma the seeds of a large creeper, the _Eutada Pursoetha_, are employed in a game called _Gohunyin_, one of the commonest forms of gambling known in that country. In Asia Minor, knuckle-bones of sheep, which are often weighted with lead, are used in the same manner, and in Damascus and the cities in connection with marbles. Marbles themselves, in the varieties known to commerce, are next exhibited.

CASE III. BOWLING, BILLIARDS, CURLING, AND SHUFFLE BOARD.

The objects used to illustrate the games of Bowling, Billiards, and Shuffle Board were made for this exhibit by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company of Chicago, by whom they are displayed, and comprise miniature tables for these games of remarkable accuracy and beauty of finish. On the north side of the case may be seen the implements used in the game of Croquet as it is played at the present day. The first games of Croquet manufactured in the United States were made from an English sample in 1863. The Chicago Curling Club here displays a collection of representative objects, including three sets of Curling stones and the medals and trophies belonging to the club and its members.

CASE IV. MERRELLS, FOX AND GEESE, CHESS, AND DRAUGHTS.

An attempt has been made to bring together as large a number as possible of the simple board games like Merrells and Fox and Geese, with the hope that they would throw light upon that much discussed question, the origin of the game of Chess. The Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Siamese, Malayan and Samoan forms of several such games are exhibited. It is curious to note that the peculiar board used in the Japanese Fox and Geese game, called _Juroku Musashi_, or “Sixteen Soldiers,” is the same as one from Peru for a similar game. The inference is that they are both of Spanish introduction, which seems to be confirmed by the statement that the Japanese game was first known in that country in the sixteenth century. Merrells is displayed in a board made in the Damascus house in the Plaisance, where the Syrians call it _Edris_, and in a diagram obtained from Chinese laborers from Canton, who call it _Sám k’í_, or the “Three Game,” as well as by European boards.

A Japanese board for that famous game which the Japanese call _Go_ and the Chinese _Wei k’i_, or the “Game of Surrounding,” follows. This is the game which is often erroneously referred to as chess, in China. The Japanese name of this board, _Go-ban_, has furnished the name which we have applied to the simple game of “Go Bang,” which we also got from Japan.

A board and men for a highly developed game, somewhat like draughts, played by the Zuñi Indians of New Mexico, furnishes a striking object for speculation and research. The board is a square divided into 144 small equal squares, each of which is crossed by two intersecting diagonal lines. The moves are made one square at a time along those diagonal lines, the pieces being placed at the angles of the squares. Two or four persons play. They each start with six men, and their object is to get their men across to the other side and occupy their opponent’s places, capturing as many of his pieces as possible by the way. A piece is taken by getting it between two others, as in the modern Egyptian game of _Seega_, and the first piece thus taken may be replaced by an extra piece belonging to the player who makes the capture, which may move on the straight as well as the diagonal lines and is called the “Priest of the Bow.” This game, which was arranged and is exhibited by Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing, is called _A-wi-thlák-na-kwe_, which he translates as “Stone warriors.” Mr. Edward Falkener, in his work entitled “Games Ancient and Oriental,” which he lent for exhibition here, has published a restoration of the ancient Egyptian game of Senat from fragments of Egyptian boards which have come down from 1600 B. C. The game as thus restored is in some respects similar to the Zuñi game, the men being taken as in _Seega_ by getting them between two others. The Zuñi game, however, may be regarded as in advance of any other board game, even of our own civilization, until we come to the true game of Chess. Chess stands alone among games. We do not find the links that connect it with lower forms of board games, and the Indian game from which our own is derived almost without change is the source from which the many variants of the Chess game doubtless originated. Several of these offspring of the Indian Chess are shown in the north side of this case, including the chess games of Burma, Siam, the Malay Peninsula, China, and Japan. A Moorish board is exhibited with them, and European chessmen and boards follow. A finely carved ivory chess set represents the pieces that are made for export by the Chinese at Canton. Draughts, which in the opinion of Mr. Edward B. Tylor may be regarded as a modern and simplified form of Chess, now follow, and here are shown two sets of interesting German draughtsmen of the eighteenth century.

CASE V. AMERICAN BOARD GAMES, GAMES OF LOTS, LOTTO, CHINESE LOTTERIES.

The games played on boards, like Merrells and Draughts, manufactured by Messrs. McLaughlin Brothers and E. J. Horsman of New York, and the Milton Bradley Company of Springfield, Mass., are found in this case. Many of them appear to have been suggested by the Oriental games such as are shown in the preceding collection.