cuLIN] RACKET: CHEROKEE 575 
rank to the other, so that some were always up and some down, alternately and 
regularly, without the least baulk or confusion; and they at the same time, and 
in the same motion, moved on obliquely or sideways, so that the circle performed 
2a double or complex motion in its progression, and at stated times exhibited a 
grand or universal movement, instantly and unexpectedly to the spectators, by 
each rank turning to right and left, taking each others places: the movements 
were managed with inconceivable alertness and address, and accompanied with 
an instantaneous and universal elevation of the voice, and shrill, short whoop. 
CueroKker. North Carolina. 
Mr James Mooney described the ball game of the East Cherokee 
under the name of anetsa:° 
The ball now used is an ordinary leather-covered ball, but in former days it 
was made of deer hair and covered with deerskin. In California the ball is 
of wood. The ball sticks vary considerably among different tribes. As before 
stated, the Cherokee player uses a pair, catching the ball between them and 
throwing it’ in the same way. ¢The stick is somewhat less than 3 feet in 
length, and its general appearance closely resembles a tennis racket. or a long 
wooden spoon, the bowl of which*is a loose network of thongs of twisted squir- 
rel skin or strings of Indian hemp. The frame is made of a slender hickory 
stick, bent upon itself, and so trimmed and fashioned that the handle seems to 
be of one solid round piece, when, in fact, it is double. . 
The ball season begins about the middle of summer and lasts until the 
weather is too cold to permit exposure of the naked body, for the players are 
always stripped for the game. The favorite time is in the fall, after the corn 
has ripened, for then the Indian has abundant leisure, and at this season a 
game takes place somewhere on the reservation at least every other week, while 
several parties are always in training. The training consists chiefly in regular 
athletic practice, the players of one side coming together with their ball sticks 
at some convenient spot of level bottom land, where they strip to the waist, 
divide into parties, and run, tumble, and toss the ball until the sun goes 
down. ‘ 
In addition to the athletic training, which begins two or three weeks before 
the regular game, each player is put under a strict gaktfinta or tabu, during 
the same period. He must not eat the flesh of a rabbit (of which the Indians 
generally are very fond) because the rabbit is a timid animal, easily alarmed 
and liable to lose its wits when pursued by the hunter. Hence the ball player 
must abstain from it, lest he, too, should become disconcerted and lose courage 
in the game. He must also avoid the meat of the frog (another item on the 
indian bill of fare), because the frog’s bones are brittle and easily broken, and 
a player who should partake of the animal would expect to be crippled in the 
first inning. For a similar reason he abstains from eating the young of any 
bird or animal, and from touching an infant. He must not eat the fish called 
the hog-sucker, because it is sluggish in its movements. He must not eat the 
herb called atinka or Lamb’s Quarter, (Chenopodium album), which the Indians 
use for greens, because its stalk is easily broken. Hot food and salt are also for- 
bidden, as in the medical gaktfinta. The tabu always lasts for seven days pre- 
ceding the game, but in most cases is enforced for twenty-eight days—i. e., 
4x7—4 and 7 being sacred numbers. Above all, he must not touch a woman, 
and the player who should violate this regulation would expose himself to 
the summary vengeance of his fellows. This last tabu continues also for seven 
days after the game. As before stated, if a woman even so much as touches a 
« The Cherokee Ball Play. The American Anthropologist, v. 3, p. 105, 1890. 
