back into the circle. The manner in which they fall decides the
denomination of the throw, and the different values are shown in the
diagram. Although at first flush this might seem to make it a game of
chance, nothing could be farther from the truth.... An expert pa-tol player
will throw the number he desires with almost unfailing certainty by his
arrangement of the sticks in his hand and the manner and force with which
he strikes them down. It is a dexterity which any one may acquire by
sufficient practice, and only thus. The five throw is deemed very much the
hardest of all, and I have certainly found it so. [See diagram.]

"According to the number of his throw the player moves his marker an equal
number of stones ahead on the circle, using one of the rivers as a starting
point. If the throw is five, for instance, he lays his horse between the
fourth and fifth stones and hands the pa-tol sticks to the next man. If his
throw be ten, however, as the first man's throw is very certain to be, it
lands his horse in the second river, and he has another throw. The second
man may make his starting point the same or another river, and may elect to
run his horse around the circle in the same direction that the first is
going or in the opposite. If in the same direction, he will do his best to
make a throw which will bring his horse into the same notch as that of the
first man, in which case the first man is killed and has to take his horse
back to the starting point, to try over again when he gets another turn. In
case the second man starts in the opposite direction--which he will not do
unless an expert player--he has to calculate with a good deal of skill for
the meeting, to kill and to avoid being killed by the first player. When he
starts in the same direction he is behind and runs no chance of being
killed, while he has just as good a chance to kill. But if, even then, a
high throw carries him ahead of the first man--for jumping does not count
either way, the only killing being when two horses come in the same
notch--his rear is in danger, and he will try to run on out of the way of