INDIAN GAMES. 95 



when he gets on more general ground, and after having 

 disposed of the technicalities of the game, he proceeds : 

 " Men, women, boys and girls are received on the sides 

 which they make up, and they wager between themselves 

 more or less according to their means." 



" These games ordinarily begin after the melting of the 

 ice and they last even to seed time. In the afternoon 

 one sees all the players bedecked 7 and painted. Each 

 party has its leader who addresses them, announcing to his 

 players the hour fixed for opening the game. The players 

 assemble in a crowd in the middle of the field and one 

 of the leaders of the two sides, having the ball in his hands 

 casts it into the air. Each one then tries to throw it to- 

 wards the side where he ought to send it. If it falls to 

 the earth, the player tries to draw it to him with his cross. 

 If it is sent outside the crowd, then the most active play- 

 ers, by closely pursuing it, distinguish themselves. You 

 hear the noise which they make striking against each 

 other and warding off blows, in their strife to send the 

 ball in the desired direction. When one of them holds 

 the ball between his feet, it is for him, in his unwilling- 

 ness to let it go, to avoid the blows which his adversaries 

 incessantly shower down upon his feet. Should he hap- 

 pen to be wounded at this juncture, he alone is responsible 

 for it. It has happened that some have had their legs 

 broken, others their arms and some have been killed. 

 It is not uncommon to see among them those who are crip- 

 pled for life and who could only be at such a game by an 



7 I translate apiffez, " bedecked," assuming from the context that the author 

 meant to write " attifez." We have, elsewhere, accounts which show that ball- 

 players, even though compelled to play with scant clothing, still covered them- 

 eelves with their ornaments. J. M. Stanley in his Portraits of North American 

 Indians, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Washington. 1862, Vol. n, p. 13, 

 says that the " Creek " ball-players first appear on the ground in costume. " Dur- 

 ing the play they divest themselves of all their ornaments which are usually dis- 

 played on these occasions for the purpose of betting on the result of the play. " 



