if the stone of the second player falls on
top of the first stone in the hole, it "kills" the first stone. The
game is out at twelve. To measure distances, they break off small
sticks. Lookers-on may stand around and bet which of the players will
win. Another game is called takwari, "to beat the ball"; in Spanish,
_palillo_. It is played only by women. Two play at a time. One knocks
a small wooden ball toward one goal, while her opponent tries to get
it to another. This game is also played by the northern Tepehuane
women, who sometimes use two short sticks tied together in the middle,
instead of the ball. The sticks are thrown ahead from their places
on the ground with a kind of quick, prying movement, with the aid of
a longer stick.

Civilised Tarahumares, as well as the Mexicans, play with knuckle-bones
as dice. The game is called _la taba_, and the bones are taken from
either the deer, the sheep, or the goat. Only one bone is used by the
two players. Twelve points make a game, and each player has twelve
grains of corn with which he keeps count. He makes two rings in
the sand, and puts his twelve grains in one ring, and as the game
progresses he transfers them into the second ring until the game
is out.

Their greatest gambling game, at which they may play even when tipsy,
is quinze; in Tarahumare, romavoa. It is played with four sticks
of equal length, called romalaka and inscribed with certain marks
to indicate their value. Practically they serve the same purpose
as dice, but they are thrown in a different way. The player grasps
them in his left hand, levels their ends carefully, lifts his bundle,
and strikes the ends against a flat or square little stone in front
of him, from which they rebound toward his opponent. The sticks
count in accordance with the way they fall. The point of the game
is to pass through a figure outlined by small holes in the ground
between the two players. The movements, of course, depend upon the
points gained in throwing the sticks, and the count is kept by means
of a little stone, which is placed in the respective hole after
each throw. Many accidents may impede its progress; for instance,
it may happen to be in the hole into which the adversary comes from
the opposite direction. In this case he is "killed," and he has to
begin again from the starting-point. The advance is regulated by a
number of ingenious by-laws, which make the game highly intellectual
and entertaining. If he has th