626 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _[erTH. Ann. 24 
Dr A. S. Gatschet has kindly furnished the writer with the follow- 
ing list of words relating to ball, from the Wichita language, obtained 
by him in 1872: 
Kasins, ball, plural kasritsa or irha kasintsa; kuyiitsits, catching; 
kakia ti kasints kuyitsik, somebody catches a ball. 
In his Wichita Tales* Dr George A. Dorsey relates how the first 
man, Darkness, who began to get power to foretell things after the 
creation of people, told the woman Watsikatsia, made after his image, 
that when he was about to go to a certain being, Man-Never-Known- 
on-Earth, he reached down at his left side with his right hand and 
brought up a ball. Then he reached down with his left hand at his 
right side and brought up a belt. Then he reached down in front, 
touched the ball to the belt, and brought up a shinny stick. He 
took the ball, tossed it up, and struck it with the stick. As the ball 
flew, he went with it. Thus guided, he went to the place where he 
expected to find Man-Never-Known-on-Earth. The object of his 
visit was that power be given him so that there should be light on the 
Fic. 807. Shinny bailand stick: diameter of ball, 4 inches; length of stick, 34 inches; Wichita 
Indians, Oklahoma; cat. no. 59305, Field Columbian Museum. 
face of the earth. He tossed and struck the ball again, but not arriy- 
ing at the place, he knew he could not depend upon the ball, and so 
took his bow and arrow and shot an arrow and flew with it. This 
he did a second, third, and fourth time, but without avail. Then he 
remembered he could run. He made one long run and stopped to 
rest. Then he ran again and a third and fourth time. He had made 
twelve trials and knew he was near the place of his journey. — 
Later, in the same narrative, it is related how Darkness, arriving 
at a certain village, instituted the game of shinny: 
The crowd came, and he told them they were to have such a game as shinny 
ball. He reached down with his right hand on his left side and produced a 
ball, and then reached down on his right side with his left hand and brought 
up a shinny stick. These he showed the people and told them they were 
for their use. Then he commanded the people to gather just outside the vil- 
lage at about evening time, and then he set the time for play. They went as 
he told them. When they were all there he tossed the ball toward the north 
and traveled with it. It went a long ways. When it lit, he picked it up and 
struck it with the stick and drove the ball back south, then said that the point 
« Journal of American Folk-Lore, vy. 15, p. 215, 1902. 
