cULIN] RACKET: CHEYENNE 5638 
wooden ball appears to be the older and possibly the original form. 
Morgan states that the Seneca formerly used a solid ball of knot, 
for which the deerskin ball was substituted. Of the two types of 
covered ball, the bag-shaped form is more commonly used in racket 
than that with a median seam. The goals were commonly two sets 
of posts or poles erected at the extremities of the field, between which 
the ball had to be driven. Single posts were sometimes used (Miami, 
Missisauga, Chippewa [Minnesota], Chinook). An early account 
of the Muskogee describes them as setting up a square mat as a target 
in their ball play. An analogous object is found in the plat of the 
racket game at New Orleans. Among the Choctaw the goals were 
connected by a pole at the top. The length of the field appears to 
have varied greatly, from 30 rods (Mohawk) to half a league 
(Miami). In general it was remarkable for its extreme length. 
Attention appears to have been paid to the direction of the course, 
which is recorded as laid out from east to west or from north to south 
(Santee). The season varied in different localities: Summer among 
the Cherokee, and winter and spring among the Santee Dakota. 
Racket was commonly a tribal or intertribal contest. Its object, apart 
from mere diversion, appears to have been the stakes which were 
invariably wagered. Among the Huron, however, lacrosse is re- 
corded by the Jesuit missionaries as played as a remedy for sickness. 
The magical rites connected with the game, the dance, scarifications, 
“ going to water,” tabus, amulets, and special features of the costume, 
all appear to refer to success in the contest. Attention may be called 
to the parallel between the Cherokee myth of ball play of the birds 
and animals and that of the moccasin game between the day and night 
animals recorded by Dr Washington Matthews. 
There can be no doubt that, though the game of racket may have 
been modified in historic times, it remains an aboriginal invention. 
There are those, however, who assert the contrary. Sylva Clapin? 
says that the game of crosse, the national game of Canada since Janu- 
ary 1, 1859, is about the same as the soule of the Ardennes mountain- 
eers in France, and in the opinion of many is but a modification of the 
latter game as brought hither by the first French colonists. 
ALGONQUIAN STOCK 
CHEYENNE. Colorado. 
Prof. F. V. Hayden ” gives the following description : 
O-ho-ni’-wo-oh, a ball club, with a hoop at the end to hold the ball as it is 
thrown. 
* Dictionnaire Canadien-Francais, Boston, 1894. 
* Contributions to the Ethnography and Philology of the Indian Tribes of the Mis- 
souri Valley, p. 295, Philadelphia, 1862. 
