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Evidence for Tasholiwe
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1595
Type Ethnography
Location Zuni
Date 1898-01-01 - 1898-12-31
Rules Forty stones, arranged in a circle, with a larger gap (called a door) after every tenth stone. Two or four players, each player playing with one piece. Each piece begins in one of the doors: north/winter is yellow, west/spring is blue, south/summer is red, east/autumn is white. North and west move anti-clockwise around the circle, south and east move clockwise. Three sticks, red on one side and black on the other, used as dice, the throws are as follows: three red = 10, three black = 5, two red and one black = 3, two black and one red =2. A throw of 10 grants the player another throw. When a player lands on a spot occupied by an opponent, the opponent's piece is sent back to start. The first player to complete four circuits of the board wins. Circuits are usually counted with beans or corn.
Content "They were all used, as I am informed, by Mr. Cushing, for the game of Ta'sho'-li-we, or "wooden canes ' (one of the seven sacred games of Zuni), which he described to me as follows: Ta -sho'-li-we- is played according to the throws of three wooden blocks, painted red on one side and black upon the other, around a circle of stones placed upon the sand. Two or four players engage, using two or four splints as markers, and advancing, according to their throws around the circle which is divided into forty parts by pebbles or fragments of pottery, and has four openings called "doorways" at its four quarters. At the commencement of the game four colored splints are arranged at these points: at the top (North) a yellow splint; at the left (West) a blue; at the bottom (South) a red, and at the right (East) a white splint. The blocks are tossed ends down on a disk of sandstone placed in the middle of the circle, and the counts are as follows:
3 red sides up =10 3 black sides up = 5 2 red and one black = 3 2 black and one red = 2
A count of ten gives another throw. When four play, the straws of the North and West move around from right to left, and those of the South and East from left to right. When a player's move terminates at a division of the circle occupied by an adversary's straw, he takes it up and sends it back to the beginning. It is customary to make the circuit of the stones four times, beans or corn of different colors being used to count the number of times a player has gone around. The colors on the wooden blocks or dice symbolize the two conditions of men:
Red, light or wakefulness; Black, darkness or sleep.The splints have the following symbolism: At top, yellow, north, air, Winter; At left, blue, west, water, Spring; At bottom, red, south, fire. Summer; At right, white, east, earth. Autumn." Culin 1898: 773-775.
Confidence 100
Source Culin, S. 1898. Chess and Playing-Cards. Washington: Government Printing Office.
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