686 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [eru. Ann. 24 
the final spurt of the racers. When the goal is reached, the first racer of the 
winning side takes the stick into his hands for the first time since starting. 
With renewed energy the individual members of the successful party put forth 
every remaining effort to be the first to arrive at the central plaza of the 
pueblo. He who gains it first is considered the superior racer of all, and his 
honor is indeed well earned. Running as rapidly as possible once around the 
heap of stores, at the same time breathing from his hand the “ breath of life,” 
the victor, stick in hand, continues at a running pace to his home. 
Curiosity prompted me to note the time occupied in performing this feat, 
which was found to be exactly two hours. 
Like almost every undertaking of the Zuni, the foot-race has more or less of 
a religious significance, as will be seen from the initiatory ceremonies. The 
opposing racers who await the signal to give the stick its first toss place tur- 
quoises or shell beads beneath the stick that they may be sacrificed at the first 
lifting of the foot. In the belief of the Zuni the stick has a tendency to draw 
the racers on, and as long as it can be kept in advance their success is, of course, 
assured. The cause thus follows the effect in the same manner as it does when 
in Zuniland the summer comes because the butterflies appear, and it departs 
because the birds take their flight. 
Training for a Zuni foot-race begins at childhood. At almost any time a 
naked youngster of four or five years may be seen playing at kicking-the-stick 
outside the door of his home, or, if a year or two older, coming from the corn- 
field—where he has been dutifully engaged in frightening off the crows—tossing 
the stick as far as his little feet will allow him. 
Mr John G. Owens“ wrote the following account of the same 
game: 
Ti-kwa-we, or Game of the Kicked Stick.2—This is the great national game of 
Zuni. Among Zuni sports it ranks as baseball does among our own. It is 
indulged in by almost the whole male population, from boys of 5 or 6 to 
men of 40. Any evening of the summer one can see crowds of twenty or thirty 
boys skirting the southern hills and kicking the stick. Practiced thus during 
eight months of the year, they have an especial occasion when they contest for 
the championship, and this is one of the great jubilees of the tribe. Although 
the women do not take part, yet they show equal interest with the men and 
become as much excited. 
The time of holding this contest is usually in the spring, between the planting 
of the wheat and the corn. The Priest of the Bow makes six prayer-plumes 
and six race-sticks. The prayer-plumes consist of small sticks with the white 
feathers from the tail of a certain species of hawk tied to one side; the race- 
sticks are about the size of the middle finger. The priest then takes these 
sticks and places them on the trail toward the south, and for four days they 
remain there untouched. At the end of this time he, and any others who 
wish to join in the race, will run out to where the sticks have been placed, 
and as they arrive they breathe on their hands and then kick the sticks home, 
making a circle of 2 or 3 miles. 
Four days later a representative of each clan, each with a picture of his clan 
painted on his back, will run out in much the same manner. By this time most 
of the people have returned from their wheat-planting and the ti-kwa-we is in 
order. At present there are six estufas in Zuni—Ha-e-que, Ha-cher-per-que, 
“Some Games of the Zuni. Popular Science Monthly, v. 39, p. 42, New York, 1891. 
’This game was described by Mr F. W. Hodge in The Anthropologist for July, 1890. 
I have thought well to repeat it here in connection with the other games, and also to make 
some corrections and to add several points not mentioned in that article. 
