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Gambling Sticks

Date1895-1901

Mediummammal skin, wood, paint

ClassificationsCeremonial Objects

Terms

Paper Field ReferencesCMH VII-B-269

Object numberHRC 00269

Descriptionconsisting of 50 gambling sticks in skin bag. bag, consists of a rectangualr piece of untanned skin with one end folded up to form a pouch for holding gambling sticks. side seams are folded back and sewn with commercial string in overcast stitch. other end of piece of skin is bent slightly over top of pouch (it appears to have been torn and may have originally formed a larger flap for wrapping around pouch. a strip of cedar bark? is wrapped twice around centre of pouch as is a skin thong made of several skin thongs knotted together. recctangular piece of yellow coloured polished bone has a circular perforation at centre and ends and one end of skin thong is reeved through perforation at one end and knotted. a rectangualr brown envelope with the number "883" and "Newcombe" marked on it has been folded around top of pouch and secured with string. interior surface of pouch painted with red and black designs.design on one side consists of two black ovoid formlines joined at centre enclosing negative ovoids with solid black ovoid at centre outlined by a fine black line (design runs off edge on one side) outer corner of one ovoid formline extends to a point enclosing a negative ovoid and two negative u forms. a red s form extends from inner corners of ovoid formlines to pointed extension (design runs off edge on one side). black formlines extend to a point from between ovoids with a negative 4 way split at centre of extension. lenticular form outline in black flanks one side of extension and which is flanked in turn by a curving red band. the number "883" is printed in black on a piece of white paper adhered to exterior surface of pouch. a black primary formline runs across one interior corner of flap with secondary details in red and black. (design runs off edge of slap so that overall design is not known). a black ovoid formline enclosing a negative inner ovoid with solid black ovoid outlined by a fine black line, and a negative u form with fine red line around interior edge and solid red ovoid along one edge (overall design runs off edge). opposite side of pouch has wide red curving band across centre surmounted by a curving black band at each side wiht three curved red bands between black bands. beneath wide red band is a curving black band. negative space beneath this band enclosed two oblique lenticular forms outlined in black and joined at centre each surmounting a red oblique u form.
the gambling sticks are cylindrical piece of hard wood stained brown with rounded ends and are decorated in black and red bands on the sticks. the bands are strategicly painted different colours and are spaced at different lengths as well, to show the difference between the gambling sticks.

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