SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 681 



a ball made of woolen rags which they beat about with their hands 

 (Romans, 1775, p. 79; Swanton, 1931 a, p. 141). This was perhaps 

 related to the game remembered by the Choctaw of Bayou Lacombe 

 in which they used merely their hands and the goals were formed 

 of stakes 10 feet high, a few inches in diameter and 200 feet apart, 

 though the goals remind us of the regular Choctaw game (Bushnell, 

 1909 a, p. 20). 



This hand-ball game seems to have been the only one of this type 

 known to the Natchez. 



We have descriptions of it by Du Pratz and Dumont de Mon- 

 ligny, as it was played during the great First Fruits Ceremony cor- 

 responding to the Creek busk. Du Pratz places this in September, 

 but Dumont in July. Presumably it was played at other times, and 

 indeed Dumont implies as much, but we have no other records. On 

 these two occasions numbers of men took part, Dumont stating that 

 there were 800 on each side, and this would facilitate the carrying 

 out of one great object of the game, which was to prevent the ball 

 from falling to the ground. According to Du Pratz, it must not be 

 retained in the hand of any player, and if one attempted to hold 

 it, it would be instantly snatched from him. Dumont, on the other 

 hand, makes the ultimate victory depend on the retention of the ball 

 by someone. Du Pratz tells us that the players were divided into 

 two parties, under the Great Sun and the Great War Chief, respec- 

 tively, the heads of the former being decorated with white feathers 

 and those of the latter with red ones. It began about 9 o'clock in 

 the morning, when the two leaders made their appearance and sum- 

 moned their followers by sounding upon a drum. First the chiefs 

 threw the ball back and forth for a while, until suddenly the Great 

 Sun sent it among the massed participants and the game was on in 

 earnest. The ball was of the size of the fist, and consisted of a piece 

 of deer hide stuffed, according to Du Pratz, with Spanish moss, and 

 according to Dumont with sawdust. Du Pratz states that the ob- 

 ject of each party was to make it touch the cabin of its leader. A 

 single tally ended the game but it usually lasted 2 hours, and Du- 

 mont says it sometimes extended for more than 3 hours. Du Pratz 

 adds that the chief of the losing side made the winners a consider- 

 able present and the latter were permitted "to wear distinguishing 

 plumes until the following year or until the next time they play 

 ball." The war dance followed this and afterward all went to bathe. 

 (Du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 379-381; Dumont, 1753, pp. 197-205; 

 Swanton, 1911, pp. 117, 119-120.) 



There is reason to think that the single-pole ball game was older 

 than the other, partly because the ground on which this was played 

 constituted one element in each of the old Creek ceremonial areas. 



