Ball Play

Image

Large group of Indians engaged in the game of lacrosse (Plate 23)."Having in the two former illustrations and their chapters, explained to the readers the costume and preliminaries of the Ball-play, I here introduce them to the ball-play ground, where five of six hundred youths, with chastened and oiled limbs, and with empty stomachs, as I have described are met upon the ground and actually engaged in the play. At the hour of the morning designated for the commencement of the play, the young men, having completed their dancing, appeared on the ground, each with the ball-sticks in his hangs, and in all other respects prepared for the play, which commenced, but nine o'clock, by the old men, the judges of the play, throwing up the ball, at the firing of a gun, exactly at the point half-way between the two byes, around which were stationed an equal number of players from each side, who instantly commenced the scuffle for the ball as it descended; each party endeavoring to catch it between their ball-sticks and to throw it through their own goal, which, when successfully done, counted one for the game."