Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/233

Fig. 171 (Iglulik) is a nuglutang of ivory, 4.5 cm long, almost round, pierced with large holes in both ends and at the middle with two holes at right-angles to each other. A similar one from Ponds Inlet (new, unused) is similar in shape, 6.5 cm long; the seal-thong is fastened to both ends; the stick is 26 cm long and consists of a point of ivory, 11½ cm long, blunt, scarfed with a nail to a wooden shaft, which is widest at the butt end.

These games have now to a certain extent been superseded by cards; it is always the same fairly simple game that is played; the women especially are devotees and it is nothing uncommon for them to play throughout the night. Stakes are made, often valuable objects such as knives, axes, tobacco, etc., and the gambling passion is often very much in evidence.

The game of saqataq is played in the following manner: a knife is laid on the platform and spun round and the person at whom the point is directed when it comes to rest is then laughed at, or must fetch ice etc., is pretty, ugly, or whatever may have been agreed upon in advance. Blind man's buff (taptajaqtut): A man has his eyes blindfolded and must catch another, who receives a blow on the left temple and takes his place.^[1] Boas^[2] says about the Aiviliks that a musk ox dipper acts as a roulette wheel, being twisted round in a circle by the women and the one from whom the handle points. away, wins.