[Lewis:]
Sunday February 2ed. 1806.
Not any occurrence today worthy of notice; but all are
pleased, that one month of the time which binds us to Fort
Clatsop and which seperates us from our friends has now
elapsed. one of the games of amusement and wrisk of the
Indians of this neighbourhood like that of the Sosones consists
in hiding in the hand some small article about the size of
a bean; this they throw from one hand to the other with great
dexterity accompanying their opperations with a particular
song which seems to have been addapted to the game; when
the individu[al] who holds the peice has amused himself sufficiently
by exchanging it from one hand to the other, he hold
out his hands for his compettitors to guess which hand contains
the peice; if they hit on the ha[n]d which contains the
peice they win the wager otherwise loose. the individual who
holds the peice is a kind of banker and plays for a time being
against all the others in the room; when he has lost all the
property which he has to venture, or thinks proper at any
time, he transfers the peice to some other who then also becoms
banker. The Sosone and Minnetares &c have a game
of a singular kind but those divide themselves in two parties
and play for a common wager to which each individual contributes
to form the stock of his party. one of them holdes the
peice and some one of the opposite party gesses which hand
contains if he hits on the ha[n]d which contains it the peice
is transferred to the opposite party and the victor counts one,
if he misses the party still retain the peice and score one but the
individual tran[s]fers the peice to some other of his own party;
the game is set to any number they think proper, and like the
natives of this quarter they always accompany their opperations
with a particular song. the natives here have also another
game which consists in bowling some small round peices about
the size of Bacgammon men, between two small upright sticks
placed a few inches asunder, but the principals of the game I
have not learn[ed] not understanding their language sufficiently
to obtain an explanation. their boys amuse themselves
with their bows and arrows as those do of every Indian
nation with which I am acquainted. these people are excessively
fond of their games of risk and bet freely every species
of property of which they are possessed. they have a smal
dog which the[y] make usefull only in hunting the Elk.
