Indian tribes of the United States. The game bears different names in the
various languages of these tribes. Hand Game is a descriptive term and not
a translation of any native name; it refers to the fact that the object is
held in the hand during the play. The following form of this game is the
way it was formerly played among the Nez Perce Indians of the State of
Idaho. Lewis and Clark, who were the first white men to record their
meeting with these Indians, mention this game, and Capt. Bonneville gives
an account of it when he visited the tribe during the third decade of the
last century.

_Properties_.--A bone or wooden bead about two inches in length and half an
inch in thickness; thirty counting sticks (these are sometimes spoken of as
arrows, and there are indications that they were once arrows--the arrows of
the twin gods); a mat oblong in shape; two logs or pieces of board about
the length of the mat, and as many sticks (to be used as drum-sticks) as
players can sit on one side of the mat.

_Directions_.--The mat should be laid east and west, the logs or boards put
on the north and south edges and the counting sticks placed in two piles of
fifteen each on the ends of the mat. The players sit on the ground, a row
on each side of the mat to the north and south. Lots are drawn to decide
which side shall have the bead "in hand." The Leader and the singers must
always stand behind the row of players who have the bead "in hand." The
opposite side must have the drum-sticks and beat on the log or board in
time with the singers.

When the players are seated in two rows, one on each side of the mat, the
Leader hands the bead to a player on the side that has drawn the right to
have the bead "in hand," and then takes his place beside the singers, who
stand behind that row, and starts the following song. All in that row join