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Evidence for Tawfa
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1597
Type Ethnography
Location Hualapai
Date 1907-01-01 - 1907-12-31
Rules Fifty stones, arranged in two-thirds of a circle, with 25 on either side of a larger stone at the apex of this arc. These smaller stones are the counters. Another large stone in the center, on which three sticks, used as dice, are thrown. These sticks are flat on one side, round on the other. The throws are as follows: one flat side up = 1; two flat sides up =3; three flat sides up = 5; three round sides up = 10. Players move stones according to the throws. The first player to reach the large stone first wins.
Content "These were collected by Mr H. P. Ewing, who gave the following account of the game under the name of tawfa : The Walapai call this game taw-fa, from the manner of throwing the sticks against a stone. The play is as follows : Place fifty small stones in a circle about 4 feet in diameter, arranging them close together except at one point in the circle, which remains open. Opposite this open space a larger stone is placed. These stones are the counters, and the game is counted by moving the stones around the circle. An equal number of stones is placed on each side of the large stone, and whichever contestant gets to the large stone
first wins. In playing the game, one person takes the little billets of wood, which are three in number, rounded on one side and flat on the other, and holds them between the thumb and first two fingers so that they are parallel. She throws them so that the three ends will strike on a large stone in the center of the circle. The count is as follows : One flat side up counts 1 ; two flat sides up, 3; three flat sides up, 5; three flat sides down, 10. This game of taw-fa is little played now among the Walapai, cards having taken its place." Culin 1907: 208.
Confidence 100
Genders Female
Source Culin, S. 1907. Games of the North American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
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