A journey to the heart of the handgame
"Everybody's got to find their own kind of Luck," old Pancho used to say, "but if you look for it too hard, it will hide from you, it will run away."
Anthropologist Tom Livingstone spent most of his career trying to preserve and record what the old Indian people of northern California could remember of the ways and medicines of their ancestors. Their cultures had been decimated by the century and more following the discovery of gold in the Sierras, but some old-timers living in isolated enclaves still clung to their traditional ways. Professor Livingstone sought out these old people, and got them to tell their stories and sing their songs. Only years later did he figure out what some of these old shamans were doing as they sang.
Any serious conversation with one of these old-timers eventually came around to the handgame, the gambling game of power played by two opposing teams.
Pancho's brother found his handgame Luck in a plant that looks like a wild carrot. That plant talked to him, and told him which way to guess in the handgame.
"Every plant has a spirit behind it. If it likes you, it will help you. But if it doesn't like you, you'd better not mess around with that plant!"
Pancho spoke of three paths to power - the way of the healer, the way of the warrior, and the way of the handgame player. This is a story of the handgame, of Coyote, and of a curious professor and his brother who got close to some of the secrets of Indian power.
The first and last chapters of this book (excluding the real last chapter - the Epilog) are freely accessible as links here for your browsing. For more, you'll have to read the book.
The songs of the Maidu and Paiute people form an integral part of this book. These song-clips are presented here so that the reader and others can get a feeling for the power and beauty of this archetypal music. For faster access on the web these are 8-bit 8Khz WAV files. Longer versions at 22Khz are available on the multimedia CD. The singers of these songs are not related in any way to any of the fictional characters in this book
|
Sounds of the handgame (372 kb) |
Worldmaker's song Tom Epperson (171 kb) |
| The Book: | The Songs:
(including original field recordings made 1963-1999) |
| Chapter 1 The Lake of Eternal Life | Pancho's coyote dance (126 kb) |
| Chapter 2 A Monday in May | Looking for brother (137 kb) |
| Chapter 3 Monday still | Earthquake gambling song (282 kb) |
| Chapter 4 The first Bear Dance | The Bear Dance (174 kb) |
| Chapter 5 Through the valley to the foothills | Grandma's song (244 kb) |
| Chapter 6 Pancho | Indian Valley gambling song (468 kb) |
| Chapter 7 Tuesday morning | A water song (198 kb) |
| Chapter 8 On Pitch-off Mountain | A gambler's water song (128 kb) |
| Chapter 9 Robin woman | Honey know (466 kb) |
| Chapter 10 Pitch-off Mountain Canyon | Mouse's song (69 kb) |
| Chapter 11 The songs of the canyon | Manzanita blossoms (167 kb) |
| Chapter 12 Coffee at Leonard's | Worldmaker's water (198 kb) |
| Chapter 13 A stop in Ophir City | The grizzly bear song (80 kb) |
| Chapter 14 Back to work | Gambler's work song (388 kb) |
| Chapter 15 Chris meets Robin | A pleasure song (214 kb) |
| Chapter 16 The Bingo King | Grass game song (163 kb) |
| Chapter 17 The next week | I stole your money (181 kb) |
| Chapter 18 Fire on the mouintain | Tai gambling song (131 kb) |
| Chapter 19 The way to Indian Valley | Paiute gambling song (104 kb) |
| Chapter 20 The man-killers of Chuchuya | Big Bob's gambling song (209 kb) |
| Chapter 21 Big-time at Indian Valley | "No winny" gambling song (265 kb) |
| Chapter 22 Winning and losing | Big Waters & Sally song (433 kb) |
| Chapter 23 The world below this world | A doctor's song (190 kb) |
| Chapter 24 A week on the hard | Marv's gambling song (460 kb) |
| Chapter 25 At the Bear Dance | Marv's other gambling song (346 kb) |
| Chapter 26 A night in the kumi | Song in the kumi (337 kb) |
| Epilog Back to Berkeley | The laughing gambler song (126 kb) |
| Glossary | End of the game (76 kb) |
Copyright (c) 1999 Bill Rathbun
All rights reserved
A digital multimedia book
A portion of the proceeds of this work will be
donated to the Yamani Maidu Bear Dance Foundation and Maidu dance groups
ISBN 0-9631242-4-2
More:
Some of these songs were previously included in:
Songs of the California Indians (P) 1975 Coyote Man
available from Pacific Western Traders,
PO
Box 95 Folsom CA 95630 Phone (916) 985-2635
A sister's song (137 kb) sung by Tom Epperson
Captain Alex's song (156 kb) sung by Tom Epperson
Ringtail's song (185 kb) sung by Bryon Beavers
Ishi's gambling song (233 kb) sung by
Marv, author and others
Credits: A Begging Dance sung by Herb Young
A Crying Song sung by Dan Rose
Mouse's Song sung by Rex Edwards
Grizzly's Song sung by Rex Edwards
Indian Valley Gambling Song sung by Tom Epperson
Pancho's Water Song sung by Bryon Beavers
Pancho's Coyote Dance sung by Bryon Beavers
Doctor's Song sung by Bryon Beavers
Dick Harry's Grass Game Song sung by Bryon Beavers
Another Water Song sung by Alta Fitch
I Stole Your Money sung by Joe Marine and others
Big Waters' songs sung by Kevin Big Pond, Dolly &
team
Song In the Kumi sung by Joe Marine and others
The Bear Dance Song sung by the Maidu Dance Group
Special thanks to Marvin and all the singers and handgame
players
who appear in this work.
Pancho's water song (137 kb)
Maidu crying song (339 kb)
Maidu traveling song (122 kb)