594 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [nru. ann. 24 
such a system had the playing of this game been reduced by skill and practice. 
If every trial was ardently contested, and the parties continued nearly equal in 
the number decided, it often lengthened out the game, until the approaching 
twilight made it necessary to take another day for its conclusion. 
On the final decision of the game, the exclamations of triumph, as would be 
expected, knew no bounds. Caps, tomahawks and blankets were thrown up 
into the air, and for a few moments the notes of victory resounded from every 
side. It was doubtless a considerate provision, that the prevailing party were 
upon a side of the field opposite to, and at a distance from, the vanquished, 
otherwise such a din of exultation might have proved too exciting for Indian 
patience. 
In ancient times they used a solid ball of knot. The ball bat, also, was made 
without network, having a solid and curving head. At a subsequent day they 
substituted the deer-skin ball and the network ball bat [figure 764] in present 
use. These substitutions were made so many years ago that they have lost the 
date. 
Fic. 764. Racket; length, 5 feet; Seneca Indians, New York; from Morgan. 
KULANAPAN STOCK 
Guauata. California. 
Mr Stephen Powers“ mentions tennis among the amusements at the 
great autumnal games of this tribe. 
Pomo. California. 
Mr Stephen Powers” relates the following: 
There is a game of tennis played by the Pomo, of which I have heard 
nothing among the northern tribes. *A ball is rounded out of an oak-knot about 
as large as those generally used by schoolboys, and it is propelled by a racket 
which is constructed of a long, slender stick, bent double and bound together, 
leaving a circular hoop at the extremity, across which is woven a coarse mesh- 
work of strings. Such an implement is not strong enough for batting the ball, 
neither do they bat it, but simply shove or thrust it along the ground. 
he game is played in the following manner: They first separate themselves 
into two equal parties, and each party contributes an equal amount to a stake to 
be played for, as they seldom consider it worth while to play without betting. 
Then they select an open space of ground, and establish two parallel base lines 
a certain number of paces apart, with a starting-line between, equidistant from 
both. f Two champions, one for each party, stand on opposite sides of the 
starting-point with their rackets; a squaw tosses the ball in the air, and as it 
descends the two champions strike at it, and one or the other gets the advan- 
tage, hurling it toward his antagonist’s base-line. Then there ensues a universal 
rush, pell-mell, higgledy-piggledy, men and squaws crushing and bumping—for 
the squaws participate equally with the sterner sex—each party striving to propel 
«Tribes of California. Contributions to North American Ethnology, vy. 38, p. 193, 
Washington, 1877. 
*Tbid., p. 151; also Overland Monthly, v. 9, p. 501. 
