304 THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



foi-ce tliem over tlie goal of her own party. The men are more than half drunk when 

 thoy feel liberal enough to indulge the women in such an amusement, and take in- 

 finite pleasure in rolling about on the ground and laughing to excess, whilst the 

 women are tumbling about in all attitudes, and scuffling for the ball. The game of 

 hunt the slipper even loses its zest after witnessing one of these, which sometimes 

 last for hours together, and often exhibits the hottest contest for the balls exactly 

 over the heads of the men, who, half from whisky and half from inclination, are 

 lying in groups and iiat upon the ground. — G. C. 



431. Game of "Tchung-kee," of the Mandans, the principal and most valued game 



of that tribe. Painted in 1832, at the Mandan village. 

 (Plate No. 59, page 133, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. 



A beautiful athletic exercise, and one on which they often bet and risk all their 

 personal goods and chattels. 



The games and amusements of these people (the Mandans) are in most respects 

 like those of other tribes, consisting of ball-plays, game of the moccasin, of the plat- 

 ter, feats of archery, horse-racing, «fec. ; and they have yet another, which may be 

 said to be their favorite amusement, and unknown to the other tribes about them. 

 The game of tclmng-lcee, a beautiful athletic exercise, which they seem to be almost 

 unceasingly practicing whilst the weather is fair and they have nothing else of mo- 

 ment to demand their attention. This game is decidedly their favorite amusement, 

 and is played near to the village on a pavement of clay which has been used for that 

 purpose until it has become as smooth and hard as a floor. For this game two cham- 

 pions form their respective parties by choosing alternately the most famous players 

 until their requisite numbers are made up. Their bettings are then made, and their 

 stakes are held by some of the chiefs or others present. The play commences with 

 two (one from each i^arty), who start off upon a trot abreast of each other, and one 

 of them rolls in advance of them, on the pavement, a little ring of two or three 

 inches in diameter, cut out of a stone, and each one follows it up with his tchung-kee 

 (a stick of six feet in length, with little bits of leather projecting from its sides of an 

 inch or more in length), which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon 

 the ground after the ring, endeavoring to place it in such a position when it stops 

 that the ring may fall upon it and receive one of the little projections of leather 

 through it, which counts for game one, or two, or four, according to the position of 

 the leather on which the ring is lodged. The last winner always has the rolling of 

 the ring, and both start and throw the tchung-kee together. If either fails to receive 

 the ring, or to lie in a certain position, it is a forfeiture of the amount of the number 

 he is nearest to, and he loses his throw, when another steps into his place. This game 

 is a very difficult one to describe so as to give an exact idea of it, unless one can see 

 it played. It is a game of great beauty and fine bodily exercise, and these people 

 become excessively fascinated with it, often gambling away everything they pos- 

 sess, and even sometimes, when everything else was gone, have been known to stake 

 their liberty upon the issues of these games, offering themselves as slaves to their 

 opponents in case they get beaten. — G. C. 



432. Horse-racing, Mandan, on a race-course back of the village, in use on every 



fair day. Painted in 1832 o,t Mandan village. Upper Missouri. 

 (Plate No. 61, page 143, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



THE INDIAN HORSE OF THE UPPER MISSOURI, AND RACING. 



The horses which the Indians ride in this country are invariably the wild horses, 

 which are found in great numbers on the jirairies, and have unquestionably strayed 

 from the Mexican borders, into which they were introduced by the Spanish invaders 

 of that country, and now range and subsist themselves, in winter and summer, over 

 the vast plains of prairie that stretch from the Mexican frontiers to Lake Winnipi'g on 



