E0FF3IAN.] * ETHNOGRAPHIC OBSEEVATIONS. 463 



for this game only. A distance of about 25 paces is marked off, having 

 a width of about 4 feet. Two play the game, and the necessary ma- 

 terials required are a pole for each of the players, and a hoop made of 

 a branch of tough wood nearly an inch thick, which is formed into a 

 ring having a diameter of about 6 or 7 Inches. This is sometimes 

 wrapped with raw-hide or sinew. Then there are two cords running 

 horizontally across the inner space, crossing two similar ones attached 

 vertically, giving the middle the appearance of the cross-wires in an 

 engineers transit. The poles are each about 15 feet long, consisting of 

 spliced pieces of cottonwood, about the general appearance, finally, of 

 a good-sized fishing-rod, with the thin end slightly turned upward. 

 When the players are ready, they take their positions at one end of the 

 course, one of them placing his forefinger on the periphery of the hoop, 

 and grasping the sides with his thumb and fingers. The hoop is rolled 

 so as to reach the outer end of the course, and as it reaches half way 

 the distance the players start abreast, pushing the poles on the ground 

 before them. When they reach the middle of the course the poles are 

 pushed ahead so as to try to penetrate the hoop, or any segment of it 

 (caused by the cords), the game resulting upon previous agreements as 

 to what was required in counting. This is repeated from the end where 

 the first attempt terminated, and continued for hours. I have seen men 

 lose blankets, horses, bows, and arrows, and in fact almost anything of 

 which they were possessors. I do not recollect the name of this game -^ 

 nor is this of as much importance as the existence of the game itself. 



The Abbe Em Domenech* describes a game of this character as ob- 

 served in the extreme western portion of the continent. 



Catlint gives a description of the TchungTcee game as one of the 

 amusements of the Mandans.l This was played with a stone ring 2 or 

 3 inches in diameter. 



Adair § describes the national game of the Cherokees under the name 

 of chunglce, and gives a detailed description. 



Jones II says, "The great game upon which the Southern Indians 

 staked both personal reputation and property was the chunghe ganieJ^ 

 DuPratz, ^ Brackenridge,** Lewis and Clarke, ft Turner,|| and Morgan §§ 

 notice this game among different tribes. It has pretty generally dis- 

 appeared, and, as far as I am able to learn, it is played to-day, with 

 some slight modification, only by the Apaches. Since the manufacture 

 of stone ornaments and implements generally has been discontinued 

 owing to the encroachments of civilization, wood and other mate- 

 rials are substituted, saving thereby a vast amount of time and labor, of 

 which aborigines are always ready to avail themselves if possible. 



* Seven Years' Kesidence in the Great Deserts of North America, vol. ii, p. 197. Lond., 

 1860. 



t Illus. of the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the N. American Indians, etc., 

 10th Ed., vol. I, p. 132, pi. 59. Lond., 18G6. 



t Prince Maximilian also noticed this among the Mandans and Manetaries. <^ Travels, 

 in the Interior of North America. London. 1843. p. 3.58. 



$ Hist, of the Am. Indians, etc., p. 401 et seq. Lond., 1775. 



II Antiq. of the Southern Indians, 1873, p. 96. 



II History of Louisiana, 1720, p. 366. 



** Views of Louisiana, pp. 255,256. 



ft Lewis and Clarke, (by Paul Allen), Philadelphia, 1814, vol. i, p. 143. 



it Traits of Indian Character, vol. ii, 1836, p. 168. 



[Extracted (in substance) from Halliday Jackson's "Civilization of the Indians."} 



U Third An. Eep. of the Regents of the Univ. of N. Y., 1850, p. 81. 



