Part 4 (2/2)
It is made of hard wood in one piece, and is about two feet long with a cone-shaped head, burnt and polished to look like horn. The shaft must be limber, and carries a small tuft of feathers to guide it in its flight. Another arrow shows an attached head of elk or buffalo horn, which is better than wood.
The boys throw this in the same manner as the ”mecha,” but the course is laid out more elaborately, with obstacles, such as ravines and small hillocks, and a series of five rings each ten feet in diameter, composed of five concentric circles with a ”bull's-eye” in the center. Beside each ring there is a snow mound from which to propel the arrow.
The game is in some ways like golf, and may be played individually or by sides, each player having two strokes in which to reach the next ring, the first a distance throw and the second a push or shove in the direction of the ring. The outer circle counts one, and each inner circle doubles the count, the bull's-eye counting thirty-two. All the players play in turn, starting from the snow mound nearest the ring where their arrows lie at the beginning of each round. The score is added at the close of the game, the boy or team with the highest number of points being the winner.
This is perhaps the most popular and exciting winter sport for Indian boys ten years of age and upward. Sometimes they send the arrow flying a hundred yards before touching the ground, and half as far again at the first rebound, after which it continues for several shorter flights. The rings are two hundred to three hundred yards apart for young men, or half that distance for small boys; the game may be played on snow-covered lakes or rivers as well as in the open country.
XIV-A WINTER MASQUE
Among the really absorbing amus.e.m.e.nts of Indian boys, none surpa.s.s the games played with tops, which with us are in season in the winter only.
The mere spinning of a top would soon become tiresome; it is the various and ingenious stunts that keep the interest alive.
Then, too, each boy makes his own top of every available kind of wood, as well as of horn and bone, and studies its peculiar defects or advantages for the work in hand, so thoroughly that it comes to have for him a kind of personality. He whittles it to a nicety in the regular top shape or any variation of it that he chooses, so long as he can coax and whip it into spinning and humming and singing. He has a stick about a foot long and as big as your thumb; sometimes one end is grooved so that he can pick up the top while spinning. To this stick he ties two or three deer-skin thongs of equal length, making a top whip with which he performs some interesting stunts and plays many amusing games.
There is much artistic taste among our people. Some decorate their tops in stripes, much like a barber's pole; others with totem paintings; but perhaps the cleverest boy is he who can carve as well as paint. One will carve a tiny toad sitting atop his spinner; another a turtle; but the boy who is quick enough to copy the b.u.mblebee-hum and all-he is a hero! When he proudly whips his black buffalo-horn spinner, he holds the center of the stage, while every other boy must pause for a minute to regard him with envy.
Sometimes a boy will playfully address his top, telling it to sing the bear song, or imitate the lowing of the buffalo bull, at the same time whipping it so vigorously and in such fas.h.i.+on that it seems really to give a semblance of the required imitation! But it is no ordinary bashful boy who does these things; it is the roguish young humorist and actor of the tribe.
When the chiefs selected for our field-day on the ice announce the date, every boy is ready. The chief of each side brings his forces together for a final test of skill, and there is no lack of spectators. In the first place, each displays his peculiar manufactures, priding himself much upon originality of design and careful workmans.h.i.+p. Then there are trials of speed, and trials of duration, and finally the more difficult stunts, such as transferring the top in the spoon end of the whip without interrupting its dance, or whipping it under a light covering of snow, or along an obstacle course. Perhaps no one save an Indian could make a bear cub whip a spinning-top, holding the whip handle in his mouth, as I have seen it done on these field-days. Some of the boys impersonate old men, and some genuine grandfathers are admitted to add to the fun. There is a particular song of the top, and its spinning is said by us to be symbolic of the dance of life.
A white boy feels himself unfortunate when Santa Claus fails to leave at his home a pair of club skates or a swift ”flexible flyer.” Still more unfortunate is he who has no hill or pond or river near for coasting and skating. In my day we were independent of all save natural features; no policeman to interfere with our fun, no fences or trespa.s.s signs-and no shops or indulgent fathers to purchase our equipment! The trees might be snapping, even bursting open with the severe cold, the ice on the lakes thundering like the cannonade of a distant battle, but, nothing daunted, we boys would sally forth in our warm buffalo calf-skin robes, well belted around the middle, and moccasins stuffed with hair, defying the weather. Our coasters were made of the longest and largest ribs of the buffalo bull, tightly bound together with strong rawhide thongs, and held in position with three flat sticks an inch or two wide and a little longer than the width of the sled. The shape was something like the body of a cutter; it was lined neatly with buffalo hide, and lariats were tied to the curved end as you tie your ropes. We generally coasted standing erect, and the narrower ones were used as skees, with a pole to balance, upon which we sped like lightning down the steep hills amid a din of yells, whoops, and laughter. Other skees were made of ba.s.swood or elm bark, stiffened with rawhide or doubled, always with the slippery inner side against the snow. In the very old days there were a kind of skates of peculiar workmans.h.i.+p, made of bones and tusks of animals.
The winter pageant or winter masque on the ice was the crowning event, and here the older people came to realize how closely they had been watched and studied by their children. Your Indian boy is a born mimic and impersonator, and this was his day. The first intimation of the festivity was given by their crier or herald, who entered the camp picturesquely attired, riding on a tame buffalo calf or a big Esquimo dog, announcing the coming of the ”old folks” or the ”first people.”
When the whole village had poured forth from their wigwams in eager expectation, the head of the procession emerged from the forest upon the field of ice. It was an imposing sight. The first clan, perhaps, would be led by a buffalo bull walking upright and holding his pipe in his hands like a man. Immediately behind him were twelve wise men walking abreast, each wearing a buffalo headdress and carrying a long staff with a buffalo-tail ta.s.sel. They were followed by the people of the clan, all clad in hairy skins, some accompanied by tame coyotes, or dragging old-time travois. Here and there, boys in groups were playing their favorite games or fluting and yodeling, while the groups of pretty girls walked more demurely.
The wolf, elk, and bear clans were similarly represented, and the odd characters of ancient legend were all present: Unktomee the tricky one with his many aliases; Heyoka the contrary one, who always says the reverse of what he means, and paints a face or mask on the back of his head so that he seems to be walking backward. Even his dog wears the head of a calf at his rear end, and a tail fixed on the end of his nose.
One figure is dressed all in white and moves with a whirling motion, all the time imitating the humming of a top. Even the wild pets join in the fun, and I have heard a tame crow, which had been taught a few simple words, crying out quite naturally as he hopped along: ”Wachee po! wachee po!” (Dance, friends, dance!)
XV-AN INDIAN GIRL'S SPORTS
Contrary to the popular opinion, our Indian girls and women are not mere drudges, but true feminine athletes, almost as alert as the men, and frequently even more muscular.
The favorite outdoor sport of the plains-women from remote times is called by them ”tap-kap-see-cha,” the original form of ”field hockey.”
Any level prairie ground is suited to the game, which is especially exciting when it is engaged in by two neighboring camps. The goals are usually two hundred yards apart, and the width of the ground about twenty feet. Twenty-five to fifty or more contestants may play on each side, but not all at once. They are placed in groups or relays, each group not to go beyond its allotted field. When a ball crosses the line, it belongs to the next group. Thus, if there are fifty players on a side, each group of ten runs only forty yards.
The ball, which is of buckskin, about as large as a baseball, but softer, is tossed up with a war-whoop, midway between the goals. Each side then strives to send it on with their hooked sticks toward the opposing goal. It may either be kept rolling along the ground, or driven through the air; and the battle continues until one side or the other succeeds in sending it over the enemy's goal. The distinctive features of the Indian game are the apportionment of the field to designated groups of players, and the large number taking part, thus reducing the confusion and chances of accident while ensuring an exceedingly picturesque and lively spectacle.
”Pas-lo-han” is played in smaller groups with a wand about eight feet long, heavy at the forward end, which is shaped somewhat like the head of a snake, and tapering gently to about the size of a man's finger.
Sometimes the head is made of buffalo, elk, or deer's horn. The girls hold it between the thumb, middle, and ring fingers, while the index finger presses against the end. The arm is closely bent at the elbow and held at right angles to the body, bringing the half-opened hand directly over the shoulder, and the wand is then hurled with all the strength of the player's arm, two or three forward steps being taken at the same time. The head hits the ground slantwise, and the body slides and wriggles after it much like a fleeing snake. The immediate object of the girls, who throw in turn, is to see who can make it go furthest, but grace and swiftness of flight are also points to be considered.
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