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Ajagaak
Players
1 - 2 (or more)
Equipment
 |
String about 5-6 inches long |
 |
Bone from a bearded seal or
any bone with one or more holes in it |
 |
Small bone tip about 2-3
inches long. |
How to Play

 | Attach
one end of the string to each of the bones as shown in the picture above. |
 | The object of the game is to
hold the bone tip in one hand and swing the bone into the air trying to
spear the hole in the bone with the bone tip. |
 | Sometimes
this game is played to a story:
 | With
two or more players each having their own ajagaak, the players continue
to flip the bone until it is speared 5 times. |
 | This
represents the first five days of the hunt. |
 | On
the 6th spear, a caribou is killed. |
 | Continue
until 10 caribou are killed. |
 | When
the hunter gets 10 caribou, he must now bury (cache) them. This means
that he spears the bone 10 more times, with each time representing a
cache. |
 | Once
all the caribou are buried, they have to be dug up again (10 more
times). |
 | When
all the caribou are dug up, the first player to get his all dug up can
then begin to steal the other hunters' caribou who haven't got theirs
yet. |
|
 | The
player with the most caribou is the winner. |
Variation
Sometimes people would sit in a circle and the ajagaak is
passed from person to person each trying to spear the bone. When a player failed
to spear the bone, it was passed onto the next person. If the player was
successful, however, he continued to do it until he missed. Whoever flipped the
bone successfully to the count of all fingers and toes, was the winner.
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