cULIN] RACKET: DAKOTA . 613 
assembles its whole force of old men, young men, and boys. The women never 
play in the same game with the men. Heavy bets are made by individuals of 
the opposite sides. Horses, guns, blankets, buffalo-robes, kettles, and trinkets 
are freely staked on the result of the game. When the parties are assembled 
on the ground, two stakes are placed about a quarter of a mile apart, and the 
game commences midway between them; the object of each party being to get 
the ball beyond the limits of its opponents. The game commences by one of the 
old men throwing the ball in the air, when all rush forward to catch it in their 
ball-bats before or after it falls to the ground. The one who catches it throws 
it in the direction of the goal of the opposing party, when, if it be caught by one 
of the same side, it is continued in that direction, and so on until it is thrown 
beyond the limits; but if caught by an opponent, it is thrown back in the oppo- 
site direction. In this way, the ball is often kept all day between the two bound- 
aries, neither party being able to get it beyond the limit of the other. When 
Maer oe tc fad 
FiG, 783. Santee Dakota Indian ball-play on the ice, Minnesota; from Schoolcraft. 
one has caught the ball, he has the right, before throwing it, to run towards the 
limits until he is overtaken by the other party, when, being compelled to throw 
it, he endeavors to send it in the direction of some of his own party, to be 
caught by some one of them, who continues sending it in the same direction. 
Figure 783 represents a ball play on the ice. The young man has the ball in 
his ball-bat, and is running with it toward the limits of the other side, pursued 
by all the other players. 
Fig. 784 represents a ball play on the prairies in summer. The ball is on 
the ground and all are rushing forward to catch it with their ball-bats, not being 
- allowed to touch it with their hands. 
The ball is carved from a knot, or made of baked clay covered with rawhide 
of the deer. The ball-bat . . . is from 3 to 4 feet long; one end bent up 
in a circular form of about 4+ inches in diameter, in which is a net-work made 
of rawhide or sinews of the deer or buffalo, 
