cUuLIN] HOOP AND POLE 421 
central core wrapped with rawhide (Navaho, Shoshoni, Tigua) or 
with bark (Umatilla, Kwakiutl, Makah). The Hopi have rings of 
corn husks. Again, there are rings of stone (Santa Barbara, Choctaw, 
Muskogee, Bellacoola, Mandan, Kwakiutl), some of rough lava, as 
among the tribes of the Pacific, and others of finely finished quartzite, 
as in the states of the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts. These stone 
rings are both with and without perforations, and among the Chero- 
kee we read of them being flat on one side and convex on the other. 
The diameter of the hoop also varies, from 25 inches among the 
Oglala to 2? inches among the Paiute. 
The darts employed are of several varieties. Arrows shot from a 
bow or thrown by hand are common. Simple straight shafts are 
frequently used, as well as plain long poles made of a single piece. 
The Hopi and the Thompson have feather darts. For the netted 
hoop, a sapling with a forked end is commonly employed. The 
Apache have long jointed poles, the ends marked with rings, which 
count in accordance with the way they fall upon the hoop. The 
Navaho use similar jointed poles with a thong attached, the divided 
ends of which count as they catch in the ring. Among the Tigua 
(Isleta), the Keres (Laguna), and the Mandan the darts had thongs 
which caught in the rng. In an Omaha game there is a curved strip 
of rawhide forming a kind of trident at the end of the pole. 
Two short darts attached in the middle by a thong were used with 
the large hoop of the Dakota, and in a game played by the Caddoan 
and Siouan stocks the throwing sticks were complicated with ares 
and crossbars. 
The game was always played by males. There is no record of 
women participating. The number of players varied from two 
upward, but two appears to have been the primal number.. In the 
ceremonial forms of the game a complete set of implements con- 
sisted of a single ring and two poles. The latter may be explained 
in many instances as the bows of the twin War Gods. The jointed 
poles of the Navaho and the Apache may be regarded as the two bows 
tied together, and the same explanation may be offered for the tied 
darts used with the large hoop by the Dakota. The implement ‘used 
by the Caddoan tribes is explained by them as representing a buffalo, 
the projecting curved head symbolizing the masculine organ. In 
playing, the long poles were ordinarily thrown after the moving ring 
by the two contestants; the beaded ring was commonly rolled against 
some kind of barrier.’ In the Delaware, Seneca, and Niska games 
the players stood in two parallel lines, shooting at the hoop as it rolled 
between them. Among the Makah the lines converge. 
For the playing field a level place was selected, and among some 
tribes especially prepared. Among the Mandan we read of timber 
