evntn] HOOP AND POLE: HAIDA 517 
and of the contending parties, which shall throw the greatest number of balls 
through the hoop as it passes rapidly along the intervening space. Judges are 
appointed, usually from among the old men, to determine which party is 
victorious, and to distribute the prizes, which, on some particular occasions 
consist of beaver and deer skins, moccasins, leggings, etc. but more usually of 
shells, nuts, and other trifles. 
Ponca. Fort Pierre, South Dakota. 
Maximilian, Prince of Wied, thus refers to a young Ponca Indian 
named Ho-Ta-Ma, among the Dakota at Fort Pierre, a handsome, 
friendly man, who often amused himself with different games: 
Frequently he was seen with his comrades playing what was called the hoop 
game, at which sticks covered with leather are thrown at a hoop in motion. 
SKITTAGETAN STOCK 
Haipa. Prince of Wales island, Alaska. 
Dr C. F. Newcombe described a game which the Kaigani Haida 
call k’istafio and the Masset, tulstaonan. The implements are a flat 
disk of hemlock twigs bound with cedar bark and a spear of salmon 
berry. 
It is played with a ring. Two sides are chosen and the ring is 
thrown into the air, the object being to catch it on the point of a stick 
9 feet long. 
Another game the Kaigani Haida call kokankijao and the Masset, 
kokijao. A small ring of hemlock twig, with quite a long string tied 
to the edge, is placed anywhere in a circle of 3 feet drawn on a sandy 
place. The game is for the opposite player to put a stick, of which 
ten are given him, inside the ring, which, with the string, is hidden 
under earth when he is not looking. 
Doctor Newcombe describes also the following game: 
Ten pieces of kelp, 1 foot long, are placed in the ground at each end of a 
playing ground 20 feet long. There aré two players on each side, each armed 
with a very sharp spear of salmon berry. The game is to pierce the kelp at the 
end opposite with the spears. One piece is very small, and if struck, the striker 
gets all the sticks. The players throw from a crouching position. The game 
is called hlqamginh/E. 
Hama. British Columbia. 
Dr J. R. Swanton ” describes the following games: 
“A woman’s pubic bones” (Gao ski’ dji).—This was a boy’s game. Late 
in the spring, when a tall, slim plant called L!al, the pith of which was eaten, 
was at its best, the boys would collect a great quantity of the stalks. Then two 
would each drive a couple of sticks into the ground about 5 yards apart. 
After that, each would take about twenty sticks of the salmon-berry bush, and, 
* Travels in the Interior of North America, translated by H. Evans Lloyd, p. 160, 
London, 18438. 
* Contributions to the Ethnography of the Haida. Memoirs of the American Museum 
of Natural History, whole series, v. 8, p. 60, New York, 1905. 
