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SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 155
must have been noted already, the object of the players was not to
score against the enemy's goal but to bring the ball home to one's
own.
The players were divided into five squads, each composed of equal
numbers of players from the opposite sides. One was at the center
of the ground, one at each goal, and the two others midway between
the goals and the center.®^ The ball was thrown into the air at the
halfway point and each side tried to bring it home to the post belong-
ing to his side. They usually played for 12 points, each side keeping
the tally by making marks on its goal post near the bottom. After
one side had secured 11 points it was privileged to have the ball
thrown up at its own goal. Sometimes the score was marked, as
seems to have been the usual custom among the Creeks, by sticking
bits of wood into the ground and pulling them out again. That is,
if the game were 12, six sticks would be stuck into the ground in succession
and then removed in the same manner.
A form of this game was adopted by the French Creoles of Louisiana
and the Louisiana negroes, and a game between two negro teams
played in the summer of 1901 was witnessed and described by Mr.
Culin.^2
The chunkey game, called by the Choctaw alchapi, alhchahpi,
or achahpi, now long discontinued, seems formerly to have been
resorted to to satisfy the demands of gamblers when intertown ball
games were not in prospect. Romans says
Their favourite game of chunM is a plain proof of the evil consequences of
a violent passion for gaming upon all kinds, classes and orders of men ; at
this they play from morning till night, with an unwearied application, and
they bet high ; here you may see a savage come and bring all his skins, stake
them and lose them ; next his pipe, his beads, trinkets and ornaments ; at last
his blankets and other garments, and even all their arms, and after all it is
not uncommon for them to go home, borrow a gun and shoot themselves ; an
instance of this happened in 1771 at East Yasoo a short time before my
arrival. . . .
The manner of playing this game is thus : They make an alley of about two
hundred feet in length, where a very smooth clay ground is laid, which when
dry is very hard ; they play two together having each a streight pole of about
fifteen feet long: one holds a stone, which is in shape of a truck, which he
throws before him over this alley, and the instant of its departure, they set off
and run ; in running they cast their poles after the stone, he that did not
throw it endeavors to hit it, and the other strives to strike the pole of bis
antagonist in its flight so as to prevent its hitting the stone ; if the first should
strike the stone he counts one for it, and if the other by the dexterity of his
cast should prevent the pole of his opponent hitting the stone, he counts one,
but should both miss their aim the throw is renewed ; and in case a score is
•* This is the Creek style. I may have misunderstood my informant.
•2 Twenty-fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 604-605.