CULIN } RACKET: PENOBSCOT Syl 
Mrs W. W. Brown “ describes the game as follows: 
B-bes-qua-mo’gan, or game of ball, seems to have been the most popular and 
universal of the outdoor games, and played by all North American tribes. Their 
legends are more or less indebted to it. Tradition gives it a prominent place in 
their wonderful mythology. The Aurora Borealis is supposed to be Wa-ba-banal 
playing ball. Among the Wabanaki it was played by women as well as men, 
but, with few exceptions, never at the same time and place, as hunters and 
warriors played ball to gain muscular power, to stimulate their prowess, and 
to augment their fleetness of foot. 
The players formed in a circle, proportionate to the number engaged in the 
game. Each held a stick called e-bes-qua-mo’gan-a-tok. This was made of 
some flexible wood, about 3 feet in length, crooked to three-fourths of a 
circle at one end, which was interwoven with stripes of hide after the manner 
of snowshoes. One man was detached to stand in the centre and on his 
throwing into the air a chip, upon which he had spat, each one would ery, “ Vl 
take the dry” or “I'll take the wet,” thus forming opposite factions. The side 
of the chip which fell uppermost decided which party should commence play. 
The ball was never touched with the hand, but thrown and kept in motion by 
the e-bes-qua-mo’gan-a-tok. The goals were two rings or holes dug in the 
ground, the distance of the circle of players apart. The game consisted in get- 
ting the ball into opponent’s goal, and regard for neither life nor limb was 
allowed to stand in the way of possible success. As they played with little or 
Fig. 754. Racket; Passamaquoddy Indians, Maine; from Mooney. 
nothing on, few escaped unhurt, but these mishaps were taken as the fortunes 
of war, and no resentment was felt. The women dress very scantily while 
playing this game, and the men, having a strict code of honor, never go near 
their playground. One tradition tells of a man that did so and threw shells 
and pebbles at the players. They screened themselves as best they could behind 
bushes and rocks. At the second attack, however, they made a rush in the 
direction from which the missiles came. The man ran to the water, and, 
plunging in, was turned into a che-pen-ob-quis (large chubfish), by which 
transformation they knew he was a Mohawk. They look upon all Mohawks as 
addicted to sorcery. 
Prenozscor. Oldtown, Maine. (Cat. no. 48236, Peabody Museum of 
American Archeology and Ethnology.) 
Ball for lacrosse (figure 755), 4 inches in diameter, covered with 
buckskin and filled with moose hair. 
The cover, a nearly circular piece of buckskin about 9 inches in 
diameter, is drawn up with a buckskin thong, pudding-bag fashion, 
around the wad of moose hair; over it is placed a second piece of 
buckskin, 5 inches in diameter, which closes the opening. It was pur- 
chased from Big Thunder, one of the very old men of the tribe, when 
he was on a visit to Cambridge. 
*Some Indoor and Outdoor Games of the Wabanaki Indians. Transactions of the 
Royal Society of Canada, v. 6, sec. 2, p. 45, Montreal, 1889. 
