Ghost Canoe by Will Hobbs

Author:Will Hobbs [Hobbs, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ages 8 & Up
ISBN: 9780061963650
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1997-10-11T07:00:00+00:00

13

The Bone Game

Around noon on the second day of the potlatch, the Anna Rose appeared offshore on its weekly rounds. Nathan barely noticed the canoes paddling out to meet the steamer and returning. He was absorbed with the progress of a gambling game between the Makahs and the Nitinats that was being played on the beach above the high-tide line.

A line of Makah men was sitting cross-legged opposite a line of Nitinat men, with about twenty feet separating the opposing players. Lighthouse George had a bone cylinder hidden in each of his hands, virtually identical to the ones Nathan had seen in the small cedar box in the ghost canoe. One cylinder had a band of black around its middle, while the other was unmarked. Nathan had determined that the object of the game was to guess which hand hid the unmarked bone. The bone handler’s team—at this moment the Makahs—did everything in their power to make the guessing as difficult as possible.

As Lighthouse George moved his arms in a wild figure-eight pattern, sometimes tossing a bone in the air and sometimes perhaps exchanging bones between his hands, his team members were making a tremendous racket. They pounded on hand drums and beat sticks on a long board laid in front of them. In addition to making so much noise, the Makah team was chanting, and their wild chant was joined by all the Makahs standing behind them. The effect, as the minutes went by, was a rising, confusing, unbearable tide of pressure directed at the guesser. Sometimes as much as ten minutes went by before the guesser from the opposing team thought he was sure, and hazarded his guess. Nathan had been watching since morning. They called the game sla hal.

Now he knew why the bones had been placed in the ghost canoe. In addition to his hunting weapons, as he paddled into eternity, the chief would need his gambling bones for playing sla hal.

More and more goods had been added to the wagered pile between the two sides, until it had become a sizable heap. It seemed an opportunity for the Makahs to win back a small portion of all that Jefferson had given away the night before, but that didn’t seem likely. The way the game worked, if the guesser guessed right, the bones were turned over to his team. An incorrect guess, and the guesser’s team had to hand over a counter stick to the opposition. The game had started hours before, and the Nitinats had won all but two of the twenty counter sticks. The Makahs had nearly been defeated, but Nathan was confident that Lighthouse George would turn the tide.

Suddenly the Nitinat guesser extended his left hand, signaling his guess. In an instant, all the drumming, pounding, and chanting from the Makah side ceased. George’s face told it all—he opened the fingers of his left hand to reveal the unmarked bone. He had failed to win a counter back for his side, and the bones were going over to a new Nitinat handler.

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