124 INDIAN GAMES. 



dexterity of his cast should prevent the pole of his oppo- 

 nent hitting the stone, he counts one, but should both miss 

 their aim the throw is renewed." 



Le Page du Pratz^- describes the game as practised 

 among the Natchez. He calls it "Xe Jeu de la Ferche which 

 would be better named de la crosse." Dumont who was 

 stationed at Natchez and also on the Yuzoo, describes the 

 game and speaks of it as "La Crosse.'*^ 



Adair is correct when he speaks of the antiquity of this 

 game. When he dwells upon the fact that these stones are 

 handed down from generation to generation, as the prop- 

 erty of the village, he brings these tribes close to the 

 mound dwellers. Squier,^* speaking of discoidal stones, 

 found in the mounds, says, "It is known that among the 

 Indian tribes of the Ohio and along the Gulf, such stones 

 were in common use in certain favorite games." Lucien 

 Carr^^ describes and pictures a chuukce stone from Ely 

 Mound, Va. Lewis and Clarke^^ describe the game as 

 played among the Mandans. This tribe had a wooden 

 platform prepared on the ground between two of their 

 lodges. Along this platform the stone ring was rolled and 

 the sticks were slid along the floor in pursuit of it. Catlin®^ 

 describes the game as played by the same tribe. They 

 had a carefully prepared pavement of clay on which they 

 played. The "Tchunkee" sticks were marked with bits of 

 leather and the counts of the game were affected by the 

 position of the leather on or near which the ring lodged. 



82 Histoire de la Louisiane, Paris, 1758, Vol. ill, p. 2. 



''5 Miinioires Historiques sur la Louisiane, Paiis, 1753. Vol. i, p. 202. 



"1 Ancient Monuments of the Mi.ssissippi Valley, p. 223. 



"Sloth Annual Report Peahody Museum, p. 93. See alt>o Schoolcraft't; Indian 

 tribes. Vol. i, p. 83. 



scLewis and Clarke's Expedition, Phila., 1814, Vol. i, p. 143. 



»'' Vol. I, p. 132 et seq. Dorsey describes two ibrnis of the game in use among 

 theOmahas: " shooting at the rolling wheel" and ".stick and ring." Third An- 

 nual Kei'ort, Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 335-336. cf. Travels in the Interior of 

 America, in the years 1809, 1810 and 1811, by John Bradbury, p. 12C. 



