siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

148 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
grace and philosophic indifference and appeared as gay and cheerful as if
nothing of importance had occurred. The education of the ancient Choctaw
warrior and hunter consisted mainly in the frequency of these muscular exer-
hence they often
cises which enabled him to endure hunger, thirst and fatigue ;
indulged in protracted fastings, frequent foot-races, trials of bodily strength,
introductions to the war-path, the chase and their favorite tolih.ss
Cushman also quotes from Halbert stories of two famous ball
games between the Choctaw and Creeks, the first about 1790 for
the possession of a beaver pond on Noxubee River, and the second
over the ownership of the territory between the Tombigbee and
Black Warrior Rivers, the winner's title to be recognized as valid.
It may be added that each ended in a battle so that, in these particu-
lar instances, the " moral equivalent for war " seems to have been
a failure.^^
Halbert's own manuscript notes contain the following account of
this game
The ball play was and still is the great Choctaw game. It is always arranged
by the chiefs or captains of the opposing parties. They confer with
each other, select the players of their respective sides, appoint their prophets,
agree upon the day and place of the play, and then see that all this is duly
announced to their people. The day appointed is always sufficiently distant
to give ample time to the players for drilling themselves in playing and to
the women for preparing a bountiful supply of food for the great occasion.
The day preceding the ball play, the two opposing parties, men, women and
children, assemble on the ball-ground, whicli is prepared for the play by
removing all obstructions. Each party erect their respective ball posts,
which are about two hundred and fifty or three hundred yards apart. The
ball posts are about twenty feet high, and are the split halves of a log planted
in the earth, side by side, the split sides of the posts of one party facing the
split sides of the posts of the other party. The exact center between the ball
posts of the two parties is ascertained by a careful measurement and the spot
marked. On the border of the ball ground and opposite the central spot
noted, a scaffold about ten feet high is erected. The two parties make their
camps near their respective posts. As night approaches both sides for an
hour or more go through a repetition of ceremonies. As each party goes
through the same ceremonies one description will suffice for both. A mingo
seats himself on the ground in the rear of his ball post with his back to it.
By rear is meant the farther side from the post of the opposite party. A
number of girls and young women now come forward and arrange themselves in
two parallel lines facing each other, extending outward from where the mingo
sits. The painted ball-players with their ball sticks in hand then come for-
ward, dance and shout around their post, then form a circle at the outer
end of the line of women where they clash their ball sticks overhead, then
hold them poised erect for a few moments. While they are thus standing in
silence, the women, prompted by the mingo, dance and chant a song in a
low tone, keeping time with their feet. The song generally is
" Onnakma, abi hoke." To-morrow toe tcill win it.
" Cushman, Hist. Inds., pp. 184-190 ; also cf. Claiborne, Miss., i, pp. 485-486.
"Cusliman, Hist. Inds., pp. 190-193.