INDIAN GAMES. 123 



American Indians are much addicted to this game, which 

 to us appears to be a task of stupid drudgery ; it seems, 

 however, to be of early origin, when their forefathers used 

 diversions as simple as their manners. The hurling stones 

 they use at present were from time immemorial rubbed 

 smooth on the rocks and with prodigious labor ; and they 

 are kept with the strictest religious care, from one genera- 

 tion to another, and are exempted from being buried with 

 the dead. They belong to the town where they are 

 used, and are carefully preserved."®*^ 



Lieut. Timberlake^^ describes the game as he saw it 

 played among the Cherokees where it Avas known by the 

 name of "Xettecawaw." "Each player has a pole about 

 ten feet long, with several marks or divisions. One of 

 them bowls around stone with one flat side, and the other 

 convex, on which the players all dart their poles after it, 

 and the nearest counts according to the vicinity of the bowl 

 to the marks on his pole. " 



Romans saw it among the Choctaws. He says, "The 

 manner of phiying the game is thus : they make an alley 

 of al)out two himdred feet in length, where a very smooth 

 clayey ground is laid, which when dry is very hard : they 

 play two together having each a straight pole about fifteen 

 feet long ; one holds a stone which is in the shape of u 

 truck, which he throws before him over this alley, and the 

 instant of its departure, they set off and run ; in running 

 the}'- cast their poles after the stone ; he that did not tiu-ow 

 it endeavors to hit it; the other strives to strike the pole 

 of his antagonist in its flight so as to prevent the pole of 

 his opponent hitting the stone. If the first should strike 

 the stone he counts one for it, and if the other by the 



s'See also Historical Collections, Louisiana and Florida. B. F. French [Vol. 



], second series, p. H. New York, 1875. 



s' Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake, etc., London, 1765, p. 77. 



