126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



not invariably) connected with religion, and were regarded as 

 ceremonies. 



PLC mentioned that both footraces and horseraces were popular sports 

 with the Ponca. On the morning of the third day of the Ponca Sun 

 dance there was a ceremonial race by the dancers to the center pole 

 (G. A. Dorsey, 1905, p. 76). The winner had the honor of counting 

 first coup on a dead enemy. 



The Ponca possessed several medicines which were used to make a 

 horse fast during a race. The use of one of these was described by 

 PLC: 



If you want to win a horse race you take the root of the P6-iplye [Allionia nyc- 

 taginea Michx.], cut a piece about two or three inches long, and chew it. While 

 you are chewing it go and talk to your racehorse. Do this in secret just before 

 the race. Tell the horse that he is going to win. Spit a little of the chewed root 

 on your hands and rub the horse down with it, starting with the nose. Talk to 

 the horse all the time. Grab his tail last. As you rub his tail say "You are going 

 to have your tail up in the air." I used to use this quite a bit, and I always won 

 the race. I hate to use it because it isn't fair to the others. For the best effect 

 you should dig the root in the fall, when the power is going back into the roots. 

 The name I gave you is the Sioux name; we Poncas call it Mak^-sklde or "Sweet 

 medicine." 



AMC, LRL, and Ernest Blue-back also mentioned that mescal 

 beans were sometimes ground up and given to racehorses to make 

 them fast. 



An old Ponca sport which is still popular with the Southern Ponca 

 is shinny, or Tabegasi. Like the Southeastern Indian ball game, the 

 Ponca game of shinny is in the nature of a religious observance, and 

 certain rituals are performed in connection with it. The game has 

 an appointed ritual custodian who is responsible for arranging for its 

 play at the proper time. At the present time Ernest Blue-back 

 "owns" the Ponca shinny game. He keeps the sacred baU used in it 

 and announces the dates of the game each year. Shinny is played 

 only in the spring. Blue-back stated that the game is played at this 

 time so that the members of the tribe can "limber up" after the en- 

 forced inactivity of winter. Four games are played each spring, one 

 game each day, spaced at intervals of a few days to a week. All of 

 the men in the tribe who are able, participate. 



The sticks are made of ash and have a slight bend at the end. They 

 are about 3 feet in length at the present time, though they are said 

 to have been slightly shorter a generation ago. The ball is of deer- 

 skin stuffed with horsehair, and each year the owner of the game 

 makes a new ball. Ernest Blue-back showed me several which he 

 had made. One had an interesting design upon it, a yeUow cross with 

 a red square where the arms of the cross intersected, flanked on either 

 side by a design of crossed shinny sticks. Whitman (1939, p. 185) 

 writes: "Among the Ponca the ball represented the earth and was 



