cuLtn] RUNNING RACES: MUSKOGEE 805 
There is also an account in The Coyote Who Lost his Powers? of a 
foot race between the coyote and a strange man, a Shooting Star, in 
which the coyote has the choice of running on top of the ground or 
under the ground. He chooses to run on top of the ground, while his 
opponent runs under the ground. The coyote wins and kills the other, 
and then restores the latter’s victims to life by gathering their bones 
and putting them into the fire. 
In The Coyote, Prairie Turtle, and the Squirrel” the coyote and 
the prairie turtle run a foot race, which the latter loses. 
ESKIMAUAN STOCK 
Eskimo (Western). St Michael, Alaska. 
Mr E. W. Nelson ° says: 
Foot racing, ik-whaun’. This is a favorite sport among the Eskimo, and is 
practiced usually in autumn, when the new ice is formed. The race extends 
from one to several miles, the course usually lying to and around some natural 
object, such as an island or a point of rocks, then back to the starting point. 
TROQUOIAN STOCK 
Seneca. New York. 
Morgan @ states: 
Foot races furnished another pastime for the Iroquois. They were often 
made a part of the entertainment with which civil and mourning councils were 
concluded. In this athletic game the Indian excelled. The exigencies, both 
of war and peace, rendered it necessary for the Iroquois to have among them 
practiced and trained runners. <A spirit of emulation often sprang up among 
them, which resulted in regular contests for the palm of victory. In these races 
the four tribes put forward their best runners against those of the other four, 
and left the question of superiority to be determined by the event of the contest. 
Before the time appointed for the races they prepared themselves for the occa- 
sion by a process of training. It is not necessary to describe them. They 
dressed in the same manner for the race as for the game of ball. Leaping, 
wrestling, and the other gymnastic exercises appear to have furnished no part 
of the public amusement of our primitive inhabitants. 
MUSKHOGEAN STOCK 
Mvsxocer. Georgia. 
Réné Laudonniétre © wrote: 
They exercise their young men to runne well, and they make a game among 
themselves, which he winneth that has the longest breath. They also exercise 
themselves much in shooting. 
253, Washington, 1904. 
«The Mythology of the Wichita, p. 
*Toid., p. 273 
©The Eskimo about Bering Strait. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ameri- 
can Ethnology, p. 340, TS899. 
4 League of the Iroquois, p. 307, Rochester, 1851. 
¢ Hakluyt’s Voyages, vy. 13, p. 413, Edinburgh, 1889. 
