CULIN] HOOP AND POLE: APACHE 451 
center, one hundred and five in all. The total number of points on 
pole and hoop is one hundred and twenty-five in the average game, 
but exceeding that in some. The two poles represent the two sexes— 
yellow representing the male, red the female. They are called 
mbashgah. Their three sections are, respectively: Butt, egie-shé dés- 
tah-nee; middle section, indee dés-tah-née; tip, billah tah shé dés-tah 
néé. The joints are made by wrapping with sinew. 
Fig. 587. San Carlos Apache Indians playing hoop and pole; San Carlos agency, Arizona; from 
photograph by Mr §S. C. Simms. 
The hoop is called bah say; the bead on the center of the bisecting 
spoke, bah say-bi-y6. The playground (figure 588) is 75 to 100 feet 
long; the home goal (d6-thé@ée’-shay-tsay-nee-say-ah) is marked by a 
flat rock midway between the two ends (d6-théé’-shay-his-tso). 
The ends, toward which the game proceeds alternately, are so built 
up by means of hay or grass that three parallel ridges, 8 to 10 feet 
wees =e 
ry === 
Fig. 588. Plan of pole grounds; White Mountain Apache Indians, Arizona. 
in length, are formed. The hoop and poles must be propelled in 
such a way as to pass into the depressions between the ridges and 
come to a stop before they have passed to the extreme ends of the 
ridges. The throw counts only when the hoop falls upon the marked 
butt of the pole. In playing, one of the two opponents rolls the 
hoop forward from the home goal toward one of the ends; just as it 
