Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 75 



The implements consisted of ball sticks or rackets, 

 two feet long, strung with raw-hide webbing, and 

 of a deer-skin ball, stuffed with hair, so as to be 

 very solid, and about the size of a base-ball. Some- 

 times the game was played by fixed numbers, some- 

 times by all the young men of a village; and there 

 were often tournaments between different towns 

 and even different tribes. The contests excited the 

 most intense interest, were waged with desperate 

 resolution, and were preceded by solemn dances and 

 religious ceremonies; they were tests of tremen- 

 dous physical endurance, and were often very rough, 

 legs and arms being occasionally broken. The 

 Choctaws were considered to be the best players. 11 



The Cherokees were likewise fond of dances. 

 Sometimes these were comic or lascivious, some- 

 times they were religious in their nature, or were 

 undertaken prior to starting on the war-trail. Often 

 the dances of the young men and maidens were 

 very picturesque. The girls, dressed in white, with 

 silver bracelets and gorgets, and a profusion of 

 gay ribbons, danced in a circle in two ranks; the 

 young warriors, clad in their battle finery, danced 

 in a ring around them ; all moving in rhythmic step, 

 as they kept time to the antiphonal chanting 12 and 

 singing, the young men and girls responding al- 

 ternately to each other. 



The great confederacy of the Muscogees or 

 Creeks, consisting of numerous tribes, speaking at 

 least five distinct languages, lay in a well-watered 



11 Adair, Bartram. 12 Bartram. 



