University of Virginia Library

Ethnological Note 1
////The moccasin game is played at night and in the winter only. Should the game continue into the day the contestants must blacken their faces with charcoal. Sides are chosen [both men and women play and the sides are not limited as to number] and a fire is kindled. On its side of the fire each group buries four moccasins in a row, leaving only the open tops visible. The object of the game is for one side to hide a bone in one of the four moccasins so sucessfully that the other side cannot guess in which moccasin the bone lies. When one side is prepared to hide the bone, a blanket is held between the two opposing groups. While the hiding of the bone is in progress, the side in possession of the bone sings songs which the participants in the first game reputedly sang at that time. Thus there is a song concerning every being who took part in the game for night or day. Where the bone has been hidden and the moccasin tops have been filled with grass, the blanket is lowered and someone of the other side steps forward, stick in hand, to strike the moccasin which he thinks contains the bone. If he is correct in his guess, the bone passes to his side and it is his side which will do the hiding. Should he miss the right moccasin, however, his side has to give their opponents a number of yucca counters, the number depending upon the position of the moccasin chosen in respect to the one which really contained t