SMITHSONIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 



29 



their state-house a square piece of ground well cleaned, and fine sand is care 

 fully strewed over it, when requisite, to promote a swifter motion to what they 

 throw along the surface. Only one or two on a side play at this ancient game. 

 They have a stone about two lingers broad at the edge, and two spans round ; 

 each party has a pole of about eight feet long, smooth and tapering at each 

 end, the points flat. They set off abreast of each other at six yards from the 

 end of the play-ground; then one of them hurls the stone on its edge, in as 

 direct a line as he can, a considerable distance toward the middle of the other 

 end of the square; when they have ran a few yards, each darts his pole 

 anointed with bear s oil, with a proper force, as near as he can guess in pro 

 portion to the motion of the stone, that the end may lie close to the stone ; 

 when this is the case, the person counts two of the game, and, in proportion 

 to the nearness of the poles to the mark, one is counted, unless by measuring, 

 both are found to be at an equal distance from the stone. In this manner the 

 players will keep running most part of the day, at half speed, under the vio 

 lent heat of the sun, staking their silver ornaments, their nose, finger, and 

 ear-rings; their breast, arm, and wrist-plates, and even all their wearing 

 apparel, except that which barely covers their middle. All the American 

 Indians are much addicted to this game, which to us appears to be a task 



IIG 



DISCOIDAL STONES 



of stupid drudgery; it seems, however, to be of early origin, when their fore 

 fathers used diversions as simple as their manners. The hurling-stones they 

 use at present were, time immemorial, rubbed smooth on the rocks, and with 

 prodigious labor; they are kept with the strictest religious care from one 



