The Indian boys play many games. When I used to meet Sac and Fox boys in
the spring-time, each one used to have with him little sticks made of
freshly cut branches of trees. These had the bark peeled off so they would
slip better. They were cut square at one end, and bluntly pointed at the
other. Each boy had several of these, so marked that he would know his
own. When two boys agreed to play, one held one of his sticks, which was
perhaps three feet long and less than half an inch thick, between his
thumb and second finger, with the forefinger against the squared end and
the pointed end forward. He then sent it sliding along on the grass as far
as it would go. Then the other boy took his turn, trying of course to send
his farther.
The young men have a somewhat similar game, but their sticks are carefully
made of hickory and have a blunt-pointed head and a long slender tail or
shaft. These will skim a long way over snow when it has a crust upon it.
One gambling game is much played by big boys and young men among the Sacs
and Foxes. It is called moccasin. It is a very stupid game, but the
Indians are fond of it. Some moccasins are turned upside down, and one
player conceals under one of them a small ball or other object. Another
tries then to guess where the ball lies.
[Illustration.]
Group of Ball Sticks.
Many of the Indian tribes had some form of ball game. Sometimes all the
young men of a town would take part. The game consisted in driving the
ball over a goal. The players on both sides were much in earnest, and the
games were very exciting. In the play a racket was used consisting of a
stick frame and a netting of thongs. The shape of this racket or ball
stick differed among different tribes. Sometimes one racket was used by
one player, sometimes two. Among the Iroquois the game is called by the
French name of lacrosse. The young men of one village often played against
those of another. They used a curious long racket consisting of a curved
stick with netting across the bend. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and other
tribes near them have two rackets for each player.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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