302 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



the woods, on both sides, a great concourse of women and old men, boys and girls, 

 and dogs and horses, where bets were to be made on the play. The betting was all 

 done across this line, and seemed to be chiefly left to the women, who seemed to have 

 martialed out a little of everything that their houses and their fields possessed. 

 Goods and chattels — knives, dresses, blankets, pots and kettles, dogs and horses, 

 and guns — and all were placed in the possession of stake-holders who sat by them and 

 watched them all night, preparatory to the play. 



"The sticks with which this tribe play are bent into an oblong hoop at the end, 

 with a sort of slight web of small thongs tied across to prevent the ball from passing 

 through. The players hold one of these in each hand, and by leaping into the air 

 they catch the ball between the two nettings and throw it, without being allowed to 

 strike it or catch it in their hands. 



"The mode in which these sticks are constructed and used will be seen in the por- 

 trait of Tulloclc-cMsli-Tco (He who Drinks the Juice of the Stone), the most distinguished 

 ball-player of the Choctaw Nation (Plate 223, No. 399), represented in his ball-play 

 dress, with his ball-sticks in his hands. In every ball-play of these people it is a rule 

 of the play that no man shall wear moccasins on his feet, or any other dress than his 

 breech-cloth around his waist, with a beautiful bead belt, and tail made of white 

 horse-hair or quills, and a mane on the neck, of horse-hair, dyed of various colors. 



"This game had been arranged and ' made up' three or four months before the par- 

 ties met to play it, and in the following manner: The two champions who led the 

 two parties, and had the alternate choosing of the players through the whole tribe, 

 sent runners, with the ball-sticks most fantastically ornamented with ribbons and 

 red paint, to be touched by each one of the chosen players, who thereby agreed to 

 be on the spot at the appointed time and ready for the play. The ground having 

 been all prepared and preliminaries of the game all settled, and the bettings all 

 made, and goods all ' staked/ night came on without the aj)pearance of any players 

 on the ground. But soon after dark a procession of lighted flambeaux was seen 

 coming from each encampment to the ground, where the players assembled around 

 their respective byes, and at the beat of the drums and chants of the women, each 

 party of players commenced the ' ball-play dance' (Plates 224 to 441). Each party 

 danced for a quarter of an hour around their respective byes, in their ball-play dress, 

 rattling their ball-sticks together in the most violent manner, and all singing as loud 

 as they could raise their voices, whilst the women of each party who had their 

 goods at stake formed into two rows on the line between the two parties of players 

 and danced also, in an uniform step, and all their voices joined in chants to the 

 Great Spirit, in which they were soliciting his favor in deciding the game to their 

 advantage ; and also encouraging the players to exert every power they possessed 

 in the struggle that was to ensue. In the meantime four old medicine men, who 

 were to have the starting of the ball, and who were to be judges of the play, were 

 seated at the point where the ball was to be started, and busily smoking to the Great 

 Spirit for their success in judging rightly and impartially between the parties in so 

 important an affair. 



"This dance was one of the most picturesque scenes imaginable, and was repeated 

 at intervals of every half hour during the night, and exactly in the same manner; 

 so that the players were certainly awake all the night, and arrayed in their appro- 

 priate dress, prepared for the play, which was to commence at 9 o'clock the next 

 morning. In the morning, at the hour, the two parties and all their friends were 

 drawn out and over the ground ; when at length the game commenced, by the judges 

 throwing up the ball at the firing of a gun ; when an instant struggle ensued between 

 the players, who were some six or seven hundred in numbers, and were mutually en- 

 deavoring to catch the ball in their sticks, and throw it home and between their re- 

 spective stakes, which, when successfully done, counts one for game. In this game 

 every player was dressed alike, that is, divested of all dress except the girdle and 



