CULIN] HOOP AND POLE: PAWNEE 465 
succeeds, counts so many in the game; and if neither pierces it, the nearest 
javelin to the mark is allowed to count, but, of course, not so many points as if 
he had ringed it. The game is exceedingly hard exercise; they play with many 
on a side, and sometimes for five or six hours, in the mid-heat of an August day 
without intermission. It is made subservient to their taste for gambling, and 
I have seen them lose guns, blankets, and even one or two horses in a morning. 
Zebulon M. Pike“ says: 
They are extremely addicted to gaming, and have for that purpose a smooth 
piece of ground cleared out on each side of the village for about 150 yards in 
length, at which they play the following games, viz: one is played by two 
players at a time, and in the following manner: They have a large hoop of 
about 4 feet in diameter, in the center of which is a small leather ring attached 
to leather thongs, which is extended to the hoop, and by that means keeps it in 
its central position; they also have a pole of about 6 feet in length, which the 
player holds in one hand, and then rolls the hoop from him, and immediately 
slides the pole after it, and the nearer the head of the pole lies to the small ring 
within the hoop (when they both fall) the greater is the cast. But I could 
not ascertain their mode of counting sufficiently to decide when the game 
was won. 
Another game is played with a small stick, with several hooks, and a hoop 
about 4 inches in diameter, which is rolled along the ground and the forked 
stick darted after it, when the value of the cast is estimated by the hook on 
which the ring is caught. This game is gained at 100. 
Dr George Bird Grinnell” writes: 
Of all the games played by men among the Pawnee Indians, none was so pop- 
ular as the stick game. This was an athletic contest between pairs of young 
men, and tested their fleetness, their eyesight, and their skill in throwing the 
stick. The implements used were a ring, 6 inches in diameter, made of buffalo 
rawhide, and two elaborate and highly ornamented slender sticks, one for each 
player. One of the two contestants rolled the ring over a smooth prepared course, 
and when it had been set in motion the players ran after it side by side, each one 
trying to throw his stick through the ring. This was not often done, but the 
players constantly hit the ring with their sticks and knocked it down, so that 
it ceased to roll. The system of counting was by points, and was somewhat 
complicated, but in general terms it may be said that the player whose stick 
lay nearest the ring gained one or more points. In the story which follows, 
the Buffalo by their mysterious power transformed the girl into a ring, which 
they used in playing the stick game. 
The story related by Dr Grinnell is that of a girl who lived with 
her four brothers in a lodge by the banks of a river. To the branch 
of a tree in front of the lodge they had hung a rawhide strap, such as 
women use for carrying wood, so as to make a swing for the girl. 
The brothers would swing the girl in the swing to make the buffalo 
come. 
The story relates how, in the brothers’ absence, a coyote persuaded 
the girl to let him swing her, and when the buffalo came they turned 
her into a ring. 
*An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, appendix to pt. 2, p. 
15, Philadelphia, 1810. 
°The Girl Who was the Ring. Harper's Magazine, vy. 102, p. 425, February, 1901. 
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