one]
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS
99
It should be noted that, after they have lost the game which lies before them, they continue playing upon their promises [to pay], if the players declare that they [still] have possessions, even though these are not in their hands. But when one continues to be unlucky, the winner may refuse [to accept] seeds from the loser for the value which he requires from the latter, and may oblige him to go to find the goods themselves, refusing to play any longer until he sees these, nor can any retort to this be made. The loser will immediately tell one of his comrades to bring the goods to him, and if his ill-luck continues he will lose everything that he owns. One of his comrades then relieves him and takes his place, stating what he intends to risk on the game to the winner, who then accepts seeds for the value [of the bet].
This game lasts sometimes three or four days. When any one of the party who loses wins back all, and he who has hitherto been lucky in play comes to lose not only the profit which he had made but what of his own property he had staked, another of his comrades also takes his place, and everything goes on as before, until one of
has been able to give me an account of it; and all that I have been able to learn is, that after having divided these straws they take them into their hands with inconceivable dexterity; that the odd number is always lucky, and the number nine superior to all the others; that the division of the straws causes the game to run high or low, and doubles the stakes, according to the different numbers, until the game is won; and the contest is sometimes so spirited, when some of the villages are playing against the others, that it lasts two or three days. Although all passes peaceably, and with apparent good faith, there is nevertheless much cheating and sleight-of-hand in the game.' Like him, Charlevoix admits {Histoire, vol. iii, 318) that he had understood nothing in all the explanations of this game; and La Potherie acknowledges (Histoire, vol. iii, 23) that its mechanism is not easy to understand. I have not been more fortunate than my predecessors, and the game of straws remains for me an undecipherable enigma." - Tailhan.
The above citations will serve to explain any obscurity which may appear in Pel-rot's text It has been translated as accurately as is possible; but the present editor can claim no further illumination for its difficulties than the above-cited authorities possessed. — Ed.
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