siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

150 BUEEATJ OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
Another excellent description was furnished Mr. Stewart Ciilin by
Mr. George E. Starr and incorporated into Culin's work on Games
of the North American Indians.
The game was between Tobucksey and Sugarloaf counties of the Choctaw
Nation. On the night before, the pla.vers went into camp near the place agreed
upon. The season was the traditional one of the full moon of one of the summer
months, and the company slept, without shelter, upon the ground. On
their arrival, the new players, who had never been allowed to play before on
the county teams, dressed themselves in ball costume, and while their elders
were arranging rules, ran around making themselves conspicuous to their own
side in the hope they would be chosen the next day. Before retiring, the man-
agers on each side and the principal players assembled to make regulations to
govern the play. They sat in a circle, and, no matter how heated the argument
became, a speaker was never interrupted by one of the opposite side. There
were about 250 Indians present, about evenly divided on each side, being chiefly
men, with a few women and children. Each side brought with them a conjurer,
or medicine man. At about 7 o'clock on the following morning the managers
assembled for some purpose, after which they collected their sides, and took
their places, a little apart, to prepare for the play. They stripped for the game,
putting on nothing but a breech clout. Their heads were bare, with the hair
cut short, without feathers. Their only ornament was a coon tail stuck up
straight along the spine, or a horse tail falling on the breech clout behind. This
was attached to the belt, a leather strap or revolver belt. The men carry their
weapons to the ball game, but are not allowed to wear them in the field. The
majority of the players were of splendid physique, spare and wiry. Several
were, in part, of negro blood, and many showed tlie result of intermixture with
the whites. The sides each numbered 30, of ages varying from 18 to 35. Among
them were some that were crippled, the result, it may be, of former play.
The goal posts, which the ball must touch, were about 200 to 225 yards apart.
They consisted of two trees, lashed together with ropes. They were about 8
inches in diameter, and were cut flat on one side, and were set at an angle so
that they presented a face of about 12 inches to the ball. This must hit the
post, to which it may be carried between a player's sticks, but it must bounce
[back] over a line in front of the posts, otherwise it does not count and is still
in play.
The conjurers were conspicuous throughout the game. At the commencement,
after the sides were chosen, all went to their goal posts. When within
about 10 feet of the posts they broke their formation, and. uttering a cry, ran
up to the posts, battering them with their ball sticks. They did this to scare
the spirit of bad luck away.
Then they lined up in a kind of alley between the goals. Near the middle of
the field, however, there were about eight men of each side ranged opposite to
each other in a line running horizontally across the goal line. When all the
others were ready, the men who were to take these places crossed the field. A
medicine man put the ball in play, tossing it into the air. One of them had
his face painted half red and half black, and carried in his hand a small branch
of a tree resembling hickory. They both stood near their respective goals and
sung and clapped their hands. The game lasted from 10 to 5, with an intermis-
sion for luncheon. The score is 12 goals, but if this number is not completed
on either side, the one having the highest number is adjudged the winner.
Butting with the head is prohibited, under a penalty of 5 goals.