666 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [eTH. ANN. 24 
found by the writer among the Shoshonean Bannock in Idaho. It 
consists of a race in which the contestants kick or toss some small 
object before them, commonly around a circuit which has been agreed 
upon, back to the starting place. There are either two individual 
players or two parties. The object which is kicked or tossed is 
of three different kinds—first, 2 ball of stone (Pima, Mono, 
Tewa, Maricopa) or of wood (Opata, Papago, Pima, Tarahumare, 
Zuaque, Cocopa, Mohave, Yuma): second, a single billet (Navaho) 
or two billets (Keres, Tewa, Zuni) ; third, a ring or 
rings (Tarahumare, Zuni). In addition, the Ban- 
nock are said to kick a beef bladder, and the Hopi 
use two cubes of hair and pinon gum in a similar 
race. 
The game of kicked stick was one of the games 
sacred to the War God in Zuni, and the implements 
are sacrificed upon his altar. The implements used 
may be identified readily as conventionalized bows 
of the War Gods, an explanation which serves like- 
wise for the racing billets used by other tribes. 
Objects similar to the kicking billets are used by the 
Hopi in ceremonials, and may be regarded as having 
a similar origin. 
For example, a set of six small wooden cylinders 
(figure $83), contained in the Field Columbian Mu- 
seum, is made of cottonwood root, 22 inches in length 
and three-fourths of an inch in diameter, painted 
black, with green ends, and having a feather at- 
pecan Sic tached around the middle by cotton cord. They 
cylinders; length, Were collected by Rey. H. R. Voth in 1893, and de- 
a tee oa scribed by him as o6nétki. He says: 
Arizona; cat. no Cylinders of this kind are made of different sizes and used 
67049 to 67054, Field iy) various ceremonies such as the Flute, Marau, and Soyal. 
Columbian Mu-+,, — : mee . ; Ree 
Seu They are deposited as offerings in springs and shrines, but 
generally not before they have been consecrated at the 
altar during some ceremony. This set of six was made by and obtained from 
the chief priest of the Marau order. The small feathers attached to them are 
those of the pin-tail duck. 
Another set of two cylinders in the same museum (cat. no. 67086, 
67087) are 24 inches in length, and are mentioned by Mr Voth as 
having been found by him in a shrine where the Soyaluna fraternity 
made their offerings to the sun. 
The tossing-rings of the Zuni and Tarahumare game may be ex- 
plained as representing net shields, and the contest, which in Zuni is 
conducted between the clowns with billets and between the women 
with rings, is analogous to the ceremony in the Flute dance, where the 
