TENNIS—A “CALL” TO PRACTICE MEDICINE. 151 
chew the same. It is as tough as whitleather, and a young fellow with 
good teeth will masticate a piece of ita whole day. Kelp tastes a little 
like a spoiled pickle, and the Indians relish it for its salty quality, and 
probably also extract some small nutriment of juice therefrom. 
There is a game of tennis played by the Pomo of which I have heard 
nothing among the northern tribes. A ball is rounded out of an oak-knot 
about as large as those generally used by school-boys, and it is propelled 
by a racket which is constructed of a long, slender stick, bent double and 
bound together, leaving a circular hoop at the extremity, across which is 
woven a coarse meshwork of strings. Such an implement is not strong 
enough for batting the ball, neither do they bat it, but simply shove or 
thrust it along on the ground. 
The game is played in the following manner: They first separate them- 
selves into two equal parties, and each party contributes an equal amount 
to a stake to be played for, as they seldom consider it worth while to play 
without betting. Then they select an open space of ground, and establish 
two parallel base-lines a certain number of paces apart, with a starting-line 
between, equidistant from both. Two champions, one for each party, stand 
on opposite sides of the starting-point with their rackets, a squaw tosses the 
ball into the air, and as it descends the two champions strike at it, and one 
or the other gets the advantage, hurling it toward his antagonist’s base-line. 
Then there ensues a universal rush, pell-mell, higgledy-piggledy, men and 
squaws crushing and bumping—for the squaws participate equally with the 
sterner sex—each party striving to propel the ball across the enemy’s base- 
line. 
They enjoy this sport immensely, laugh and vociferate until they are 
“out of all whooping”; some tumble down and get their heads batted, and 
much diversion is created, for they are very good-natured and free from 
jangling in their amusements. One party must drive the ball a certain num- 
ber of times over the other’s base-line before the game is concluded, and 
this not unfrequently occupies them a half-day or more, during which they 
expend more strenuous endeavor than they would ina day of honest labor in 
a squash-field. 
Schoolcraft says in his ‘““Onedta” that the chiefs and graver men of the 
