SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SiOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 679 



been customary elsewhere. One of our earliest authorities says that 

 20 played on a side, another, somewhat later, gives 40, and a recent 

 writer saw 30 used on a side, but the missionary Cushman raises the 

 number to from 75 to 100 per side, and Catlin speaks of several hun- 

 dred. The night before the game each party danced as did the 

 Cherokee and Creeks. A chief seated himself back of the ball post 

 of his side but facing it, two rows of women ranged themselves be- 

 tween him and the post facing each other, and the players themselves 

 formed a circle near the post. The men danced about the post, then 

 the women danced, and these dances were repeated 12 times according 

 to Halbert, while Catlin merely states that they danced every half 

 hour all night. That night they put on their paint, rubbed their 

 limbs, and took medicines. As in the case of the other tribes, a doc- 

 tor was employed by each party, but w^e hear of his activities less 

 in connection with the preliminaries than during the game itself when 

 each engaged in various conjuring practices such as throwing the 

 rays of the sun on the players of their sides by means of a mirror to 

 increase their strength. The ball sticks were made of hickory usu- 

 ally, but Bossu adds chestnut. The lengths given, 2^ to 3 feet, would 

 seem to belie assertions that their sticks were shorter than those used 

 by the Creeks. The ball appears to have been identical with the ball 

 of the Creeks and Chickasaw, except that one later writer mentions 

 rags used in stuffing instead of deer hair. Starr asserts that one party 

 sometimes tied a long tail to a ball to impede it when their oppo- 

 nents had to throw against the wind, and this must mean that the 

 device of the medicine ball was in force among the Choctaw. Their 

 dress consisted of the usual breechclout and belt with a horsetail or 

 tail of some other animal, the raccoon being the only one mentioned, 

 fastened behind, and at times a mane made of horsehair fastened 

 around the neck (pi. 80). They were also brilliantly painted. The 

 goals are given by two early writers as about 150 feet apart, but 

 the later ones all make it between 600 and 1,200. Romans (1775) 

 states that the goals were in the shape of St. Andrew's crosses and 

 that the ball had to be driven between them under the point where 

 they crossed. In the game Catlin witnessed there were two posts 

 about 25 feet high and 6 feet apart with a crossbar. Later writers, 

 however, all tell us that each goal was made of two flat pieces of 

 board 15 to 20 feet high and lashed side by side so as to present 

 a single solid surface. To count as a goal, a ball must go between 

 the posts when there was space or strike the goal and fall back within 

 the line of the goal posts. The central point, midway of the goals, 

 was indicated by a short stake and directly opposite this on one 

 side of the ground was a scaffold for the property wagered, this 

 under the charge of a stakeholder. The number of points for which 



