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144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bdix.103
" There are times when the ball gets to the ground, and such a confused mass
rushing together around it, and knocking their sticks together, without the
possibility of anyone getting or seeing it, for the dust that they raise, that the
spectator loses his strength, and everything else but his senses; when the
condensed mass of ball-sticks, and shins, and bloody noses, is carried around
the different parts of the ground, for a quarter of an hour at a time, without
any one of the mass being able to see the ball ; and which they are often thus
scuffling for, several minutes after it has been thrown off, and played over
another part of the ground.
" For each time that the ball was passed between the stakes of either party,
one was counted for their game, and a halt of about one minute; when it was
again started by the judges of the play, and a similar struggle ensued ; and
so on until the successful party arrived at 100, which was the limit of the game,
and accomplished at an hour's sun, when they took the stakes; and then, by
a previous agreement, produced a number of jugs of whiskey, which gave
all a wholesome drink, and sent them all off merry and in good humour, but
not drunk." **
The numbers taking part in this particular match do not seem
to have been approached in later times. Among the more recent
writers Cushman gives a very vivid description, though, as usual,
he is verbose. He says
When the warriors of a village, wearied by the monotony of everyday life,
desired a change that was truly from one extreme to . . . another, they sent
a challenge to those of another village of their own tribe, and, not infre-
quently, to those of a neighboring tribe, to engage in a grand ball-play. If
the challenge was accepted, and it was rarely ever declined, a suitable place
was selected and prepared by the challengers, and a day agreed upon. The
Hetoka (ball ground) was selected in some beautiful level plain easily found
in their then beautiful and romantic country. Upon the ground, from three
hundred to four hundred yards apart, two straight pieces of timber were
firmly planted close together in the ground, each about fifteen feet in height,
and from four to six inches in width, presenting a front of a foot or more.
These were called Aiulbi (Ball posts). During the intervening time between
the day of the challenge and that of the play, great preparations were made
on both sides by those who intended to engage therein. With much care and
unaffected solemnity they went through with their preparatory ceremonies.
The night preceding the day of the play was spent in painting with the
same care as when preparing for the war-path, dancing with frequent rubbing
of both the upper and lower limbs, and taking their " sacred medicine."
In the mean time, tidings of the approaching play spread on wings of the
wind from village to village and from neighborhood to neighborhood for miles
away; and during the first two or three days preceding the play, hundreds of
Indians—the old, the young, the gay, the grave of both sexes, in immense
concourse, were seen wending their way through the vast forests from every
point of the compass, toward the ball-ground ; with their ponies loaded with
skins, furs, trinkets, and every other imaginable thing that was part and
parcel of Indian wealth, to stake upon the result on one or the other side.
On the morning of the appointed day, the players, from seventy-five to a
hundred on each side, strong and athletic men, straight as arrows and fleet
as antelopes, entirely in a nude state, excepting a broad piece of cloth around
^ George Catlin, North American Indians, 2 vols., Phila., 1913. Vol. 2, pp. 140-144.