.MTA1Mw.NzA2NDE

From Newberry Transcribe
Jump to navigation Jump to search

437 and 18 penciled at top of page

The players responded, as when they first started, and proceeded in single file till within half a mile of the ball ground. After halting a short time, the whoop & response being given as before, they proceeded to the poles. The conjurer then laid down his deer skin, and the players the articles they had bet?, and ate some more bread, & drank parched corn meal. After this they stripped off all their clothes except the flap, & took a root, given them by the conjurer, and chewing it, rubbed themselves with the juice. They then took the feathers from the conjurer's deer skin (having been painted red) and put them in their hair, and the conjurer's right hand man, tied, or fastened them. They also painted their faces red. The paint was made of a certain soft red stem burnt & powdered. The leading player, who gave the challenge, then took the ball, made for the occasion, - kept it till the play commenced, and then threw it first. A very influential man then came forward, exhorting them to exert themselves to the utmost in the play * All things being ready the players again stood in a cluster, facing the middle ground, to which, after the whoop & response as before, all started, single file, in a slow walk. There they were met by their antagonists, each having brought the