es1370 installs but doesn't work

[Chris Baker <bakerc@pacbell.net>]

I'm trying to get a sb128 to work.  At startup, whether compiled in or as a module, I get

es1370: version v0.24 time 19:13:34 Dec 20 1999
es1370: found adapter at io 0xdc00 irq 11
es1370: features: joystick off, line in, mic impedance 0

# cat /proc/devices

Character devices:
  1 mem
  2 pty
  3 ttyp
  4 ttyS
  5 cua
  7 vcs
 10 misc
 14 sound
128 ptm
136 pts

Block devices:
  2 fd
  3 ide0
 22 ide1

So it's at char-major-14 right?

# ls -l /dev/sndstat'

crw-rw----    1 root     audio     14,   6 Dec 20 18:13 /dev/sndstat

but then,

# cat /dev/sndstat

cat: /dev/sndstat: No such device

The Sound-HOWTO doesn't really have a lot of information to help here,
and I don't really understand how devices work very well.  I'm really
at a loss.  Can anyone point me towards relevant documentation?

TIA,

cbb