CULIN] HOOP AND POLE: ARIKARA 461 
This was the signal for the other to shoot at it while it was in motion. 
Should they fail to hit it, it was returned rolling to the first team, so as to give 
them an equal chance of making at it with their arrows. As soon as the disk 
had been shot, the real competitive game commenced. The arrows which had 
hit it, two, three, or more, became the stake for the rival team to win over. For 
this purpose the disk was hung upon a short stick planted in the ground near 
the team who had succeeded in sending home the arrows, and it was aimed at 
successively by each member of the opposite party. Should anyone be lucky 
enough to shoot it with his first arrow, the stake played for became his irrey- 
ocable property. When the target was hit, but on a subsequent attempt of 
the marksman, the stake was thereby won over, subject to its being redeemed 
by any member of the opposing team performing the same feat. In this case the 
game became a draw; the wheel was set rolling anew, and the nature of the 
stake was determined as in the first instance. 
I have never seen ’keilapes played by other than children and young men. 
But in times past it had a sort of national importance, inasmuch as teams from 
distant villages were wont to assemble in certain localities more favorable to 
its performance in good style. Indeed, until a few years ago the sporting field 
of some was literally dotted with small cavities resulting from the fall of the 
arrows. 
CADDOAN STOCK 
Arrkara. South Dakota. 
John Bradbury “ says: 
We amused ourselves some time by watching a party who were engaged in 
play. A place was neatly formed, resembling a skittle alley, about 9 feet in 
breadth and 90 feet long: a ring of wood, about 5 inches in diameter was 
trundled along from one end, and when it had run some distance, two Indians, 
who stood ready, threw after it, in a sliding manner, each a piece of wood, about 
3 feet long and 4 inches in breadth, made smooth on one edge, and kept from 
turning by a crosspiece passing through it, and bended backwards so as to 
resemble a crossbow. The standers-by kept an account of the game, and he 
whose piece, in a given number of throws, more frequently came nearest the 
ring after it had fallen, won the game. 
H. M. Brackenridge ” says: 
Their daily sports, in which, when the weather is favorable, they are engaged 
from morning till night, are principally of two kinds. <A level piece of ground 
appropriated for the purpose, and beaten by frequent use, is the place where 
they are carried on. The first is played by two persons, each armed with a long 
pole; one of them rolls a hoop, which, after having reached about two-thirds of the 
distance, is followed at half speed, and as they perceive it about to fall, they 
east their poles under it; the pole on which the hoop falls, so as to be nearest to 
certain corresponding marks on the hoop and pole, gains for that time. This 
game excites great interest, and produces a gentle, but animated exercise. The 
other differs from it in this, that instead of poles, they have short pieces of wood, 
with barbs at one end, and a cross piece at the other, held in the middle with one 
hand; but instead of the hoop before mentioned, they throw a small ring, and 
endeavor to put the point of the barb through it. This is a much more violent 
exercise than the other. 
4 Travels in the Interior of America in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, p. 126, Liver 
pool, 1817. 
> Views of Louisiana, together with a Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River, in 
1811, p. 255, Pittsburg, 1814. 
