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152 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
players were near their opponents' goal. One player belonging to each side
remained in the middle of the field. The ball was put in play by being
thrown from one end of the field to the two players in the middle. No rackets
were used, the ball being caught in the hands and thrown or held while the
player endeavored to reach his opponents' goal. To score a point a player
was required to touch the goal post with the ball, or if the ball was thrown
8nd hit the post, the play likewise counted. The first side to score a chosen
number of points won the game. This game is seldom played, and the older
game, formerly played with rackets (kapocha), has not been played for several
years.**
Mr. T. J. Scott, the farmer connected with the Eastern Choctaw
Agency at Philadelphia, Miss., who has grown up in this country,
gave me the following information regarding the ceremonies preliminary
to a game
To initiate a regular game, the chief of one settlement visited the
chief of another and the two made all of the provisional arrangements.
Then each of them sent out a little bundle of sticks (what
the Creeks call " the broken days ") to the families in his settlement.
One stick is thrown away each day, and when but one is left they
meet at a place appointed. In the afternoon there are practice games.
After supper the chief sets up two posts and places himself between
them facing the east. In front of him are ranged two lines of women
extending toward the east and beyond them are the ball players, who
form a circle. Then the chief sings, using words which mean,
" We are going to win a game," the words being repeated over and
over, and the women begin to dance. They dance for four or five
minutes when they stop and the players begin dancing, singing
such words as these : " Play ball right and we will win the game,"
" Handle the sticks right and we will win the game," " If the witch
doctor conjures right we will win the game." The women and men
danced and sang alternately in this manner up to 12 times, because
the game is to be for 12 points. The chief had to sing right through,
with both parties, and the whole lasted from one and a half to two
hours. Afterwards the chief distributed " the broken days " determining
the date of the game, and then all went home. Both sides
had to agree who was to be first to throw up the ball. The doctors
were the score keepers. The parties sometimes agreed to call in help
from other bands, but it now seems impossible to determine whether
there was any definite arrangement of allied towns such as existed
among the Creeks. Of the local bands known to Mr. Scott—Bok
Chito, Biasha, Moklasha, Red Water, Sixtowns, Turkey Creek, and
Konhutta—he does not know of any two which did not play against
each other except Moklasha and Turkey Creek, and that exception
may have been accidental.
^ Bushnell : The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, Louisiana, Bull. 48, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 20.