siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL LIFE 143
ornamented with ribbons and red paint, to be touched by each one of the
chosen players; who thereby agreed to be on the spot at the appointed time
and ready for the play. The ground having been all prepared and prelimi-
naries of the game all settled, and the bettings all made, and goods all
' staked,' night came on without the appearance of any players on the ground.
But soon after dark, a procession of lighted flambeaux was seen coming from
each encampment, to the ground where the players assembled around their
respective byes ;
and at the beat of the drums and chants of the women, each
party of players commenced the ' ball-play dance.' Each party danced for a
quarter of an hour around their respective byes, in their ball-play dress;
rattling their ball-sticks together in the most violent manner, and all singing
as loud as they could raise their voices ; whilst the women of each party, who
had their goods at stake, formed into two rows on the line between the two
parties of players, and danced also, in a uniform step, and all their voices
joined in chants to the Great Spirit; in which they were soliciting his favour
in deciding the game to their advantage; and al*) encouraging the players to
exert every power they possessed, in the struggle that was to ensue. In the
meantime, four old medicine-men, who were to have the starting of the ball,
and who were to be judges of the play, were seated at the point where the
ball was to be started ; and busily smoking to the Great Spirit for their success
in judging rightly, and impartially, between the parties in so important an
affair. (PI. 5.)
" This dance was one of the most picturesque scenes imaginable, and was
repeated at intervals of e^•ery half hour during the night, and exactly in the
same manner ; so that the players were certainly awake all the night, and
arranged in their appropriate dress, prepared for the play which was to commence
at nine o'clock the next morning. In the morning, at the hour, the two
parties and all their friends, were drawn out and over the ground ; when at
length the game commenced, by the judges throwing up the ball at the firing of
a gun ; when an instant struggle ensued between the players, who were some
six or seven hundred in numbers, and were mutually endeavouring to catch
the ball in their sticks, and throw it home and between their respective stakes
which, whenever successfully done, counts one for game. In this game every
player was dressed alike, that is divested of all dress, except the girdle and
the tail, which I have before described ; and in tliese desperate struggles for the
ball, when it is up (where hundreds are running together and leaping, actually
over each other's heads, and darting between their adversaries' legs, tripping
and throwing, and foiling each other in every possible manner, and every voice
raised to the highest key, in shrill yelps and barks) ! there are rapid succes-
sions of feats, and of incidents, that astonish and amuse far beyond the conception
of any one who has not had the singular good luck to witness them.
In these struggles, every mode is used that can be devised, to oppose the progress
of the foremost, who is likely to get the ball ; and these obstructions often meet
desperate individual resistance, which terminates in a violent scuffle, and
sometimes in fisticuffs; when their sticks are dropped, and the parties are
unmolested, whilst they are settling it between themselves ; unless it be by a
general stampedo, to which they are subject who are down, if the ball happens
to pass in their direction. Every weapon, by a rule of all ballplays, is laid
by in their respective encampments, and no man allowed to go for one ; so
that the sudden broils that take place on the ground, are presumed to be as
suddenly settled without any probability of much personal injury ; and no one
is allowed to interfere in any way with the contentious individuals.