ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 89

Fires are used to give signals to distant parties.
A number of rock paintings are found on the shores of Kamloops
Lake. I have not seen them, and do not know what they represent.

GAMES.

The games of the Shushwap are almost the same as those of the coast
tribes. We find the game of dice played with beaver-teeth (see p. 19),
and the well-known game of lehal. Children and women play ‘cat's
eradle.’ A peculiar gambling game is played in the following way:
long pole is laid on the ground, about fifteen feet from the players ; aring,
about one inch in diameter, to which four beads are attached at points
dividing the circumference into four equal parts, 1s rolled towards the
pole, and sticks are thrown after it, before it falls down on touching the
pole. The four beads are red, white, blue, and black. The ring falls
down on the stick that has been thrown after it, and, according to the
colour of the bead which touches the stick, the player wins a number of
points. Another gambling game is played witha series of sticks of maple
wood, about four inches long, and painted with various marks. ‘There
are two players to the game, who sit opposite each other. A fisher-skin,
which is nicely painted, is placed between them, bent in such a way as to
present two faces, slanting down toward the players. Hach of these
takes a number of sticks which he covers with hay, shakes and throws
down one after the other, on his side of the skin. The player who throws
down the stick bearing a certain mark has lost.

Shooting matches are frequently arranged. An arrow is shot, and
then the archers try to hit the arrow which has been shot first. Ora
bundle of hay or a piece of bark is thrown as far as possible, and the men
shoot at it. The following game of ball was described tome: The
players staud in two opposite rows. A stake is driven into the ground
on the left side of the players of one row, and another on the right side of
the players of the otherrow. Two men stand in the centre between the
two rows. One of these pitches the ball, the other tries to drive it to one
of the stakes with a bat. Then both parties endeavour to drive the ball
to the stake on the opposite side, and the party which succeeds in this
has won the game.

CustOMS REGARDING BrrtH, MARRIAGE, AND DratH.

My information regarding customs practised at the birth of a child is
very meagre. The navel-string is cut with a stone knife. The child is
washed immediately after birth. The custom of deforming certain parts
of the body does not prevail. The mother must abstain from ‘ anything
that bleeds,’ and consequently must not eat fresh meat. There are no
regulations as to the food or behaviour of the father. The cradle after
being used is not thrown away, but hung to a tree in the woods. If a
child should die, the next child is never put into the same cradle which
was used for the dead child.

A girl on reaching maturity has to go through a great number of
ceremonies. She must leave the village and live alone in a small hut
on the mountains. She cooks her own food, and must not eat anything
that bleeds. She is forbidden to touch her head, for which purpose she
uses a comb with three points. Neither is she allowed to scratch her

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