on one side and tinned or galvanized on the other. These he put in the
pan or platter, and shaking them together, tossed them into the air,
catching them again in the bowl, which he thumped on the blanket just
as they fell.

"S'pose four white an' four red'll come out," said he, "an' I'm play'
with Alex. He'll give me eight stick now, for I'll win. So. Try heem
again."

This time the little disks fell irregularly, and Moise expressed his
disgust.

"Five one kin', three other kin'; no good!" said he. "She'll have to
come up two, four, seex, eight--the hard way for heem to come is all
tam the way he'll win. You see?" he continued on shaking and thumping
the bowl and catching the little disks, and as he won or lost, Alex
gravely handed him the little sticks, or counters, or received them
back from him as the case might be.

This ancient gambling device of the Indians was very simple and the
game was soon learned, but the knack of catching the disks in the pan
proved quite difficult. John undertook it, with the result that he
spilled every one of them out when they fell in the shallow bowl, much
to the amusement of Moise.

"You'll not been Injun," said Moise. "If any of those pieces he'll fly
out of pan, then you have to give up the pan to the next man. You'll
make a loss that tam. All tam Injun he'll play those platter game in
the house at night," continued Moise. "Two, four man, she'll sit on
blanket an' play many hour. His woman she'll cook meat on the fire.
Another man he'll sit an' poun' the drum. You'll see my drum, I
s'pose."

He now fished out from under his bed one of the singular Cree drums, a
shallow, one-sided circle of bent wood covered with tightly stretched
moose skin. He showed them how the Indian drummer held this, straining
it tight with thongs stretched from finger to thumb, and making the
music by drumming with the fingers of the other hand.

"Injun he'll use those drum sometime to pass tam," said Moise.
"Sometam he'll use heem for pray. S'pose I'll want ver' much for get
moose--I'll play on heem an' seeng. S'pose I want for get grizzly ver'
much--then I seeng _ver_' hard for get grizzly. S'pose you'll seeng
an' play, always you'll get those game, sure."

"I don't see what we'd do without you, Moise," said John, who was
continually rummaging around in Moise's ditty-bag. "For instance,
what's this funny-looking knife you have here?"

"That's worth noticing," said Alex. "You young gentlemen o