CULIN] SHINNY: OMAHA 641 
Cat. no. 37608. Flat, highly finished stick (figure 831), painted red, 
somewhat wide and slightly spoon-shaped at the striking end; 
length, 394 inches. , 
Collected by the writer in 1900; the stick is one of several that 
were found in the grass after a woman’s ball game. 
Hiparsa. Fort Atkinson, North Dakota. 
Henry A. Boller? says: 
The young squaws are playing a game of ball resembling shinny or football, 
insomuch as curved sticks and feet are called into service. 
Omana. Nebraska. (Cat. no. IV B 2225, Berlin Museum fiir V6l- 
kerkunde. ) 
Club (figure 833), curved at end, 39 inches in length, and a buckskin 
ball (figure 832), with median seam, 4+ inches in diameter. Col- 
lected by Miss Alice C. Fletcher. 
The ball is designated tabe, and the stick tabe gathi. 
Fig. 833. 
Fie. 83]. Shinny stick; length, 39} inches; Yankton Dakota Indians, Fort Peck, Montana; cat. 
no. 37608, Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania. 
Fig. 832. Shinny ball; diameter, 4 inches: Omaha Indians, Nebraska: cat. no. IV B 2225, Berlin 
Museum fiir Vélkerkunde. 
Fig. 833. Shinny stick; length, 39 inches; Omaha Indians, Nebraska; cat. no. IV B 2225, Berlin 
Museum fiir Vélkerkunde. 
Rey. J. Owen Dorsey ” describes tabegasi, men’s game of ball, as 
. ‘S S 
follows: 
This is played by the Omahas and Ponkas with a single ball. There are 
thirty, forty, or fifty men on each side, and each one is armed with a curved 
stick about 2 feet long. The players strip off all their clothing except their 
breechcloths. At each end of the playground [figure 834] are two posts from 
12 to 15 feet apart. The playground is from 300 to 400 yards in length. When 
the players on the opposite side see that the ball is liable to reach A they try 
to knock it aside, either towards B or C, as their opponents would win if the 
ball passed between the posts at A. On the other hand, if the party represented 
by A see that the ball is in danger of passing between the posts at D, they try 
to divert it either towards I. or F. 
The stakes may be leggings, robes, arrows, necklaces, ete. All are lost by the 
losing side, and are distributed by the winners in equal shares. One of the elder 
«Among the Indians: Bight Years in the Far West, 1858-1866, p. 67, Philadelphia, 
1868. 
*Omaha Sociology. Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 336, 1884. 
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