And we can thus perceive
why it is that the word wagemin is alone competent to excite
merriment in the husking circle.
"This term is taken as the basis of the cereal chorus, or corn song,
as sung by the Northern Algonquin tribes. It is coupled with the
phrase Paimosaid,--a permutative form of the Indian substantive,
made from the verb pim-o-sa, to walk. Its literal meaning is, he
who walks, or the walker; but the ideas conveyed by it are, he who
walks by night to pilfer corn. It offers, therefore, a kind of
parallelism in expression to the preceding term." -- Oneota, p.
254.
Pugasaing, with thirteen pieces.
This Game of the Bowl is the principal game of hazard among the
Northern tribes of Indians. Mr. Schoolcraft gives a particular
account of it in Oneota, p. 85. "This game," he says, "is very
fascinating to some portions of the Indians. They stake at it their
ornaments, weapons, clothing, canoes, horses, everything in fact
they possess; and have been known, it is said, to set up their wives
and children and even to forfeit their own liberty. Of such
desperate stakes I have seen no examples, nor do I think the game
itself in common use. It is rather confined to certain persons, who
hold the relative rank of gamblers in Indian society,--men who are
not noted as hunters or warriors, or steady providers for their
families.
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