BADIN] MATERIAL CULTURE 123 



Tree ganv. — Two trees are selected about 20 feet apart, one hav- 

 ing a branch about 15 feet from the ground. A number of people 

 stand ready at the side of this tree and the one whose turn it 

 is to play tries to hit the branch. When he succeeds in doing so 

 all inin toward the other tree. As soon as the player gets the ball 

 he tries to hit the runners. If successful in this before the others have 

 reached the tree he wins; otherwise they are "safe"' and he must 

 try again. The Winnebago called this game hahi'bidjiJce^u^. 



Travel and Transportation 



Canoes and dugmits. — All the boats found in the early days in the 

 territory originally inhabited by the Winnebago were dugouts, yet 

 a number of the tribe questioned denied positively that boats of 

 this kind were in common use before the coming of the whites. 

 According to these informants, in former times the Winnebago 

 always had their home in a birch country, and had at hand, there- 

 fore, the requisite material for making canoes; moreover, birch- 

 bark canoes were much easier to construct than dugouts, for which 

 logs had to be hollowed by burning — a process that might consimie 

 weeks. Only when the whites introduced the ax and the knife did 

 it become practicable to make dugouts. These implements became 

 available at the time of the southern migration of the tribe into a 

 region where' birch bark was scarce, and one result of the change 

 was the substitution of the dugout for the canoe. The validity of 

 this explanation is supported by the same line of argument as in the 

 case of the wooden vessels. 



Snow-shoes. — The snowshoes of the Winnebago were similar to 

 those used by the Menominee, with this difierence, that the two 

 pieces of wood forming the "handle," instead of being tied together 

 for their whole length, as among the latter, were left unfastened for 

 about 5 inches at the end. This difference is immediately detected 

 (pi. 40) by the present-day Winnebago, who can easily identify, by 

 the feature mentioned, snowshoes belonging to the tribe. 



Musical Instruments 



The musical instruments of the Winnebago seem to have been 

 restricted to the flute, drum, and gourd. The flute was made of red 

 cedar and usually had a range of five or six notes; it was used at 

 many ceremonies, and especially by young men when courting. 

 The drum consisted of a framework (in later days a wooden pail or 

 a barrel served the purpose), over which a skin was drawn very tight. 

 A small quantity of water was always kept in the drum so that the 

 skin could be wet as often as necessary. Rattles consisted of dried 

 gourds filled, in olden times, with seeds, in more modern times with 

 buckshot (pi. 30, d,f). 



