cuLIN] HOOP AND POLE: MANDAN 5138 
idea of it, unless one can see it played—it is a game of great beauty and fine 
bodily exercise, and these people become excessively fascinated with it, often 
gambling away everything they possess and even, sometimes, when everything 
else was gone, have been known to stake their liberty upon the issue of these 
games, offering themselves slaves to their oppo- 
nents in case they get beaten.¢ 
Manpan. Fort Clark, North Dakota. 
Maximilian, Prince of Wied, says:? 
The game called billiards, by the French Can- 
adians, is played by two young men, with long 
poles, which are often bound with leather, and 
have various ornaments attached to them. On 
a long, straight, level course, or a level path in 
or near the village, they roll a hoop, 3 or 4 inches 
in diameter, covered with leather, and throw the 
Fic. 677. Netted hoop and pole; Mandan Indians, North Dakota; from Maximilian, Prince of 
Wied. 
pole at it: and the success of the game depends upon the pole passing through 
it. This game is also practiced among the Manitaries [Hidatsa], and is de- 
scribed in Major Long’s Travels to the Rocky Mountains as being played by the 
Pawnees. who, however, haye hooked sticks, which is not the case with the 
tribes mentioned. 
About the middle of March. when the weather is fine, the children and young 
men play with a hoop, in the interior of which strips of leather are interwoven ; 
its diameter is about a foot [figure 677]. This hoop is either rolled or thrown, 
and they thrust at it with a pointed stick; he who approaches the center most 
nearly is the winner. . 
As soon as the ice in the rivers breaks up. they run to the banks and throw 
this interlaced hoop into the water. 
“The following account by the Abbé E. H. Domenech, who does not specify the tribe 
or locality, is probably taken from Catlin. (Seven Years’ Residence in the Great Deserts 
of North America, vy. 2, p. 197, London, 1860.) 
“Their game of Spear and Ring is extremely curious and difficult. The players are 
divided into two camps, for Indians are fond of collective parties in which are many 
conquerors, and consequently many conquered. The stakes and bets are deposited in the 
eare of an old man; then a hard smooth ground, without vegetation of any kind, is 
chosen, in the middle of which is placed perpendicularly a stone ring of about 3 inches 
diameter. When all is prepared the players (armed with spears 6 or 7 feet long, fur- 
nished with small shields a little apart from each other, sometimes with bits of leather) 
rush forward, two at a time, one from each camp; they stoop so as to place their spears 
on a horizontal level with the ring, so that they may pass through it, the great test of 
skill being to succeed without upsetting it. Each small shield or bit of leather that 
passes through counts for a point: the victory remains to the player who has most points, 
or he who upsets the ring at the last hit.” 
“Some Indians render the game still more difficult by playing it as follows. One of the 
players takes the ring in his hand and sends it rolling, with all his strength, as far as 
possible on the prepared ground; his adversary, who is by his side, starts full speed after 
it to stop it, so as to string it on his spear as far as the last little shield.” 
‘Travels in the Interior of North America, translated by H. Evans Lloyd, p. 358, 
London, 1843. 
24 ETH—05 M——33 
