Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 127 



mystically painted as such." I found no trace of such a belief, though 

 I used many of the same informants as Whitman. Ernest Blue-back 

 firmly denied any such symbolism. 



The Ponca shinny game is played on a field a mile in length and 

 about half a mile wide. At each end a goalpost about 6 feet tall 

 is erected. The game is begun at a point half way between the goal- 

 posts. An ofiicial (formerly a shaman) draws a cross, representing 

 the four winds (the same design painted on the ball mentioned above) , 

 on the ground and places the ball on it. Play commences in much 

 the same manner as in a modern hockey game. The captains of each 

 side raise their sticks above the ball three times, then the fourth 

 time they attempt to drive the ball into the opponents' territory. 



Play is fast and furious and often a player of one team mistakes 

 an opponent's head for the ball. Each time one team works the ball 

 to the opponents' goalpost one point is scored. The first team to 

 score four goals wins. 



LMD stated that formerly there was much more ceremony in 

 connection with the shinny game than at present. Even the goal- 

 posts were in charge of special custodians. Before each game offerings 

 of calico were tied to the posts and they were ceremonially marched 

 to the baU field. There were four prescribed halts on this march at 

 which the poles were lowered to the ground and the entire group raised 

 a great war cry, drumming the palm of the hand over the mouth. 

 After each game the posts were returned to the camps of their keepers. 



Certain players possessed medicines or bundles which gave them 

 ability in the game. Whitman (1939, p. 185) writes: "In his early 

 youth Black Eagle's (WBB's) father gave him a good luck bundle . , , 

 'When I play shinny I use that medicine. You can't hit me.' " 

 Ernest Blue-back commented that the Ponca believe that touching 

 the ball in the shinny game is a cure for stiffness. 



Ponca women had their own version of the game, according to 

 J. O. Dorsey (1884 a, pp. 336-337). It was called Wabddade. 



Dorsey and Miner both mention a man's game is which arrows 

 were first shot into the branches of a tree and then the players en- 

 deavored to dislodge them (Dorsey, 1884 a, p. 336; Miner, 1911, 

 p, xxx). Another game played with arrows is described by Dorsey, 

 who writes: 



Mq,gadeze is a game unknown among the Omahas, but practiced among the 

 Ponkas, who have learned it from the Dakotas. It is played by two men. Each 

 one holds a bow upright in his left hand with one end touching the ground and 

 the bow-string towards a heap of arrows. In the other hand he holds an arrow, 

 which he strikes against the bow-string, which rebounds as he lets the arrow go. 

 The latter flies suddenly towards the heap of arrows and goes among them. The 

 player aims to have the feather on his arrow touch that on some other arrow 

 which is in the heap. In that case he wins as many arrows as the feather or web 

 has touched; but if the sinew on his arrow touches another arrow it wins not only 

 that one but all in the heap. [Dorsey, 1884 a, p. 339.] 



