592 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [5TH. ANN. 24 
The last two are derived from otsikwa, meaning in general any- 
thing that has a form almost round and a certain solidity. 
Ononvaca. New York. 
The Dictionnaire Francais-Onontagué * gives this definition : 
Bale A jouer, odzikkSa deyeyendakk8a. 
In Zeisberger’s Indian Dictionary ” we find: 
To play at ball, waszichquaéqua; ball (kugel), ozichqua. 
Sr Rees. St Regis, New York. (Cat. no. 118840, United States 
National Museum. ) 
Leather-covered ball (figure 763), made of a single piece cut and 
stitched with thread, containing an interior core of cotton thread ; 
diameter, 2} inches. Collected by R. B. Hough. 
Seneca. New .York. 
Morgan¢ describes the Iroquois ball 
game as follows: 
With the Iroquois, the ball game, o-tii-dii-jish’- 
quii-iige, was the favorite among their amuse- 
ments of this description. This game reaches 
back to a remote antiquity, was universal among 
the red races, and was played with a degree of 
zeal and enthusiasm which would searcely be 
Fig. 763. Ball; diameter, 2} credited. It was played with a small deerskin 
inches; St Regis Indians, St 
Regis, New York; cat. no. 3 : 
118840, United States Nationa] 00a Side, each set representing its own party. The 
Museum. game was divided into several contests, in which 
each set of players strove to carry the ball 
through their own gate. They went out into an open plain or field and erected 
gates, about 80 rods apart, on its opposite sides. Hach gate was simply two 
poles, some 10 feet high, set in the ground about 3 rods asunder. One of these 
gates belonged to each party; and the contest between the players was, which 
set would first carry the ball through its own a given number of times. Hither 
5 or 7 made the game, as the parties agreed. If 5, for example. was the 
number, the party which first carried, or drove the ball through its own 
gate this number of times, won the victory. Thus, after eight separate con- 
tests, the parties might stand equal, each having wor 4; in which case the 
party which succeeded on the ninth contest would carry the game. ‘The players 
commenced in the center of the field, midway between the gates. If one of them 
became fatigued or disabled during the progress of the game, he was allowed to 
leave the ranks, and his party could supply his place with a fresh player, but 
the original numbers were not at any time allowed to be increased. Regular 
managers were appointed on each side to see that the rules of the game were 
strictly and fairly observed. One rule forbade the players to touch the ball 
with the hand or foot. 
ball, by a select band, usually from six to eight 
4 New York, Cramoisy Press, 1859. 
> Cambridge, 1887. 
¢ League of the Iroquois, p. 294, Rochester, 1851. 
