cULIN] HOOP AND POLE: CHOCTAW 485 
and, standing in the successful caster’s tracks, tries to transfix the fallen hoop. 
After him, the first player tries at the same mark and from the same position. 
They cast alternately until all have thrown their four lances. The greater 
number of transfixing spears decides. There are 30 counting-sticks, 15 to a 
side. The buckskin is to keep the hoop from bounding. 
Wasama. Madera county, California. 
Dr J. W. Hudson describes the following game under the name 
of hewitu numhe: 
A hoop, he-wi’-ta, 10 inches in diameter, of Fremontii californica bark bound 
with buckskin, is rolled toward an opponent, who shoots at it with arrows in 
passing. <A “strike” counts 3 and a “ transfix ” 10, or coup. 
MUSKHOGEAN STOCK 
Bayocouna and Muceunasua. Louisiana. 
The officer who kept the journal of the frigate? when Iberville 
arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi, 1698-1699, says: 
They pass the greater part of their time in playing in this place with great 
sticks, which they throw after a little stone which is nearly round, like a bullet. 
Cuoctaw. Mississippi. 
James Adair ” says: 
The warriors have another favorite game called chungke; which, with pro- 
priety of language, may be called ‘‘running hard labor.” They have near 
their statehouse a square piece of ground well cleaned, and fine sand is care- 
fully strewed over it, when requisite, to promote a swifter motion to what they 
throw along the surface. Only one or two on a side play at this ancient game. 
They have a stone about 2 fingers broad at the edge, and 2 spans round: Each 
party has a pole of about 8 feet long, smooth, and tapering at each end, the 
points flat. They set off abreast of each other at 6 yards from the end of the 
playground; then one of them hurls the stone on its edge, in as direct a line as 
he can, a considerable distance toward the middle of the other end of the square: 
When they have ran a few yards, each darts his pole anointed with bear's oil, 
with a proper force, as near as he can guess in proportion to the motion of the 
stone, that the end may lie close to the stone—when this is the case, the person 
counts 2 of the game, and, in proportion to the nearness of the poles to the mark, 
1 is counted, unless by measuring both are found to be at an equal distance from 
the stone. In this manner the players will keep running most part of the day, 
at half speed, under the violent heat of the sun, staking their silver ornaments, 
their nose, finger, and ear rings; their breast, arm, and wrist plates, and even 
all their wearing apparel, except that which barely covers their middle. All 
the American Indians are much addicted to this game, which to us appears to 
be a task of stupid drudgery. It seems however to be of early origin, when 
their fore-fathers used diversions as simple as their manners. The hurling 
stones they use at present were time immemorial rubbed smooth on the rocks, 
and with prodigious labor; they are kept with the strictest religious care 
2 Journal de la Frégate Le Marin, Margry’s Découvertes, v. 4, p. 261, Paris, 1880. 
’The History of the American Indians, p. 401, London, 1775. 
