676 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



jects were also worn on the head and the breechclout, and paintings 

 were employed which had symbolic meanings. Skins of the players 

 were made slippery with the slippery elm or sassafras. The doctors 

 employed various devices to bewitch the opposing team and increase 

 the strength of their own. The players were raised symbolically to 

 each of the seven heavens in succession, and the doctors carried on 

 their incantations throughout the game. Before the game began 

 extensive wagers were made on both sides. Then an old man ad- 

 vanced at one end of the field and, after a short harangue, threw 

 up the ball so that it would fall in the middle. The game was exceed- 

 ingly rough and deliberate efforts were made to put good players out 

 of the game. After each goal, the chief of the side which had made it 

 threw up the ball to put it in play again, the other chief facing him. 

 White states that it not only counted one to carry the ball across 

 the goal line but as well when the chief opposing the one who threw 

 it up made a catch. Before leaving, the defeated party challenged 

 the other to play again (Mooney, 1890, pp. 105-132). 



William Bartram has the following description of a ball-play dance 

 he witnessed in the Cherokee town of Cowe : 



The people being assembled and seated in order, and the musicians having 

 taken their station, the ball opens, first with a long harangue or oration, spoken 

 by an aged chief, in commendation of the manly exercise of the ball-play, re- 

 counting the many and brilliant victories which the town of Cowe had gained 

 over the other towns in the nation, not forgetting or neglecting to recite his own 

 exploits, together with those of other aged men now present, coadjutors in the 

 performance of these athletic games in their youthful days. 



This oration was delivered with great spirit and eloquence, and was meant 

 to influence the passions of the young men present, excite them to emulation, and 

 inspire them with ambition. 



This prologue being at an end, the musicians began, both vocal and instru- 

 mental ; when presently a company of girls, hand in hand, dressed in clean white 

 robes and ornamented with beads, bracelets and a profusion of gay ribbands, 

 entering the door, immediately began to sing their responses in a gentle, low, 

 and sweet voice, and formed themselves in a semicircular file or line, in two 

 ranks, back to back, facing the spectators and musicians, moving slowly round 

 and round. This continued about a quarter of an hour, when we were surprised 

 by a sudden very loud and shrill whoop, uttered at once by a company of young 

 fellows, who came in briskly after one another, with rackets or hurls in one 

 hand. These champions likewise were well dressed, painted, and ornamented 

 with moccasins and high waving plumes in their diadems: they immediately 

 formed themselves in a semicricular rank also, in front of the girls, when these 

 changed their order, and formed a single rank parallel to the men, raising their 

 voices in responses to the tunes of the young champions, the semicircles con- 

 tinually moving round. There was something singular and diverting in their 

 step and motions, and I imagine not to be learned to exactness but with great 

 attention and perseverance. The step, if it can be so termed, was performed 

 after the following manner ; first, the motion began at one end of the semicircle, 

 gently rising up and down upon their toes and heels alternately, when the first 

 was up on tip-toe, the next began to raise the heel, and by the time the first 



