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SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAIj LIFE 141
After the players have finished, the women whose husbands have lost assem-
ble to avenge them. The racket which the women use differs from that of the
men in being bent. They play with much skill. They run against one another
very swiftly, and shove one another like the men, being equally naked except
for the parts which modesty dictates they shall cover. They merely redden
their cheeks, and use vermilion on their hair instead of powder."'
Bossu's proof seems to have suffered from the wrong kind of edi-
torial handling, so that we get the impression that each of the players
in this game was provided with but a single racket and that there
was but a single goal. Mention here and by Romans that women
played this game is important because most of the other tribes of
the Southeast do not seem to have permitted it. Slightly later than
the last is the account preserved by Romans, who introduces us to
two games or two types of the same
Their play at ball is either with a small ball of deer skin or a larger one
of woolen rags ; the first is thrown with battledores, the second with the hand
only ; this is a trial of skill between village and village ; after having appointed
the day and field for meeting, they assemble at the time and place, fix two
poles across each other at about a hundred and fifty feet apart, they then
attempt to throw the ball through the lower part of them, and the opposite
party, trying to prevent it, throw it back among themselves, which the first
party again try to prevent; thus they attempt to beat it about from one to
the other with amazing violence, and not seldom broken limbs or dislocated
joints are the consequence; their being almost naked, painted and ornamented
with feathers has a good effect on the eye of the bystander during
this violent diversion ; a number is agreed on for the score, and the party
who first gets this number wins.
The women play among themselves (after the men have done), disputing
with as much eagerness as the men; the stakes or bets are generally high.
There is no difference in the other game with the large ball, only the men
and women play promiscuously, and they use no battledores.**
Speaking of the men's game Hodgson says :
"All violence on these
occasions is forgiven ; and I was informed that it is the only case in
which life is not generally required for life." ^*
Other evidence indicates that this was true in the main, but we
know that at times a ball game was an occasion which allowed old
feuds to come to the surface and that, on the other hand, it some-
times gave rise to feuds.
The most celebrated description of the game is by Catlin, who
illustrates his text with three sketches. Two of these sketches I am
not reproducing, partly because it has been done frequently and
partly because they do not represent a typical game. There happened
to be a much larger number of participants present than
usual.
82 Appendix, p. 262 ; Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales. 2 vols. Paris,
1768. Vol. 2, pp. 100-103.
8s Romans, Nat. Hist. E. and W. Fla., p. 79.
8* Hodgson, Travels, p. 271.