worse difficulty! All their leather had been used in making wings for the
bat and there was no time to send for more. In this dilemma it was
suggested that perhaps wings might be made by stretching out the skin of
the animal itself. So two large birds seized him from opposite sides with
their strong bills, and by tugging and pulling at his fur for several
minutes succeeded in stretching the skin between the fore and hind feet
until at last the thing was done, and there was the flying squirrel. Then
the bird captain, to try him, threw up the ball, when the flying squirrel,
with a graceful bound, sprang off the limb and, catching it in his teeth,
carried it through the air to another tree-top a hundred feet away.

"When all was ready the game began, but at the very outset the flying
squirrel caught the ball and carried it up a tree, then threw it to the
birds, who kept it in the air for some time, when it dropped; but just
before it reached the ground the bat seized it, and by his dodging and
doubling kept it out of the way of even the swiftest of the animals until
he finally threw it in at the goal, and thus won the victory for the
birds."


Hazard Games

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.--The objects which are thrown or tossed in games of
hazard Dr. Culin for convenience has designated as "dice" and he calls the
games "dice games." (Ibid., pp. 44, 45.) He found these games among one
hundred and thirty tribes belonging to thirty different linguistic stocks.
Throughout this wide distribution the "dice" are not only of different
forms but are made from a variety of materials: split-cane; wooden or bone
staves or blocks; pottery; beaver or muskrat teeth; walnut shells;
persimmon, peach or plum stones. All the "dice" of whatever kind have the