684 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 18t 



ness of the notches to the roller when they came to rest, and 12 points 

 constituted a game (Swanton, 1931 a, p. 156). Dumont de Montigny 

 says that the Natchez used poles 15 to 16 feet long, that he whose pole 

 lay nearest to the stone won, and that the game was for 10 points. 

 Du Pratz reduces the length of the poles to 8 feet and adds that they 

 were shaped like a capital F. The stone roller was 3 inches in diam- 

 eter and 1 inch thick. The object was as stated by Dumont, the 

 winner of each throw having the right to hurl the roller next time. 

 After making a throw the players kept on running beside their poles, 

 evidently w^ith the thought that they might exert upon them some 

 psychic influence. Both Dumont and Du Pratz comment on the 

 amount of property which changed hands during the course of these 

 games (Dumont, 1753, vol. 1, pp. 140-141 ; Du Pratz, 1758, vol. 3, pp. 

 2^). The Chitimacha and various tribes along the Mississippi River 

 played it, and G. A. Dorsey has recorded a Caddo myth in which it 

 is plainly mentioned, though in this the Plains type of ring appears, 

 made out of elm bark (Dorsey, G. A., 1905, p. 34; Swanton, 1942, p. 

 175). From the description of the game which Gravier witnessed 

 among the Houma, it is possible that, instead of throwing two sticks 

 at a stone roller, they threw a stone roller at a wooden one. However, 

 it is more likely that there has been an error in his notes. (Thwaites, 

 1897-1901, vol. 65, pp. 145-148; Shea, 1861, 143-145; Swanton, 1911, 

 p. 288.) 



The Creeks played a game which was possibly descended from the 

 one last described. They pitched arrows in succession and if the 

 point of one player's arrow touched the feather of another's, the 

 second player kept the arrow of the first. 



The Creeks also had another game distantly resembling chunkey. 

 This was called "rolling the stone," or "rolling the bullet," and was 

 played by rolling a large marble or bullet along a trench with the 

 object of makin,g it come to rest in certain hollows which counted 

 differently depending on the difficulty of reaching them. 



The moccasin game, usually called by the Creeks "hiding the bul- 

 let," was played by two sides each of which in turn strove to conceal 

 a bullet or some similar object so skillfully under one of a number 

 of moccasins, hats, socks, or gloves that the opponents could not 

 guess its location. We have mention of this among the Creeks, 

 Chickasaw, and Choctaw. It seems to have been played by men 

 only, and at least this is specifically stated of the Chickasaw. The 

 four socks or gloves they used were the kind they were accustomed 

 to weave at home. One on each side took turns in doing the hiding. 

 If the bullet was disclosed on the first guess, it counted four; if on 

 the second, two. Cane slivers were employed as counters. Among 

 the Choctaw the game is said to have been played with six on a 



