654 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [5TH. ANN. 24 
The ball is made of deer skin bags, each about 5 inches long and 1 in diameter. 
These are so fastened together as to be at a distance of 7 inches each from the 
other. It is thrown with a stick 5 feet long. 
This play is practiced in summer beneath the shade of wide-spreading trees, 
beneath which each strives to find their homes, tahwin, and to run home with it. 
These haying been appointed in the morning, the young women of the village 
decorate themselves for the day by painting their cheeks with vermilion and 
disrobe themselves of as much unnecessary clothing as possible, braiding their 
hair with colored feathers, which hang profusely down to the feet. 
At the same time the whole village assemble, and the young men, whose 
loved ones are seen in the crowd, twist and turn to send shy glances to them, 
and receive their bright smiles in return. 
The same confusion exists as in the game of ball played by the men. Crowds 
rush to a given point as the ball is sent flying through the air. None stop to 
narrate the accidents that befall them, though they tumble about to their not 
little discomfiture; they rise, making a loud noise between a laugh and a ery, 
some limping behind the others, as the women shout. ‘Ain goo” is heard, 
sounding like the notes of a dove, of which it is no bad imitation. Worked 
garters, moccasins, leggins, and vermilion are generally the articles at stake. 
Sometimes the chief of the village sends a parcel as they commence, the con- 
tents of which are to be distributed among the maidens when the play is over. 
I remember that, some winters before the teachers from the pale faces came 
to the lodge of my father, my mother was very sick. Many thought she could 
not recover her health. At this critical juncture she told my father that it 
was her wish to see the Maiden’s Ball Play, and gave as her reason for her 
request that were she to see the girls at play it would so enliven her spirits 
with the reminiscences of early days as to tend to her recovery. 
A description of the game follows in which it is related that the 
goals were two large spruce trees transplanted from the woods to 
holes in the ice. 
Missisauea. River Credit, Ontario. 
Rev. Peter Jones“ says: 
The women have a game called uhpuhsekuhwon, which is played with two 
leather balls tied with a string about 2 feet long. These are placed on the 
ground, and each woman, with a stick about 6 feet long, tries to take up 
uhpuhsekuhwon from her antagonist, throwing it in the air. Whichever party 
gets it first to their respective goals or stakes counts 1. 
Se a 
wy? E 
ht 
Fia. 860. Double ball; length, 18} inches; Sauk and Fox Indians, Tama, Iowa; cat. no. 36754, 
Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania. 
Sauk anp Foxes. Tama, Iowa. (Cat. no. 36754, Free Museum of 
Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania. ) 
Bag of cotton cloth (figure 860), 184 inches in length, expanded at the 
two ends and thin in the middle. Collected by the writer in 1900. 
Six women play on each side, some 50 yards apart. The side that 
first gets the ball across wins the game. The ball is called kunanohok. 
“ History of the Ojebway Indians, p. 185, London, 1861. 
