Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-04-11


Pitchlynn, he told me of a very curl
Gus legend in relation to the origin of a
! subdivision of his tribe known as the
| "Crawfish," or Craytsh band: "Our
people have among them band who
| formerly-but at very remots period
| of antiquity, long before the separation
~ co,-,,ir,nlee
into Creeks Tor Mus NO gee ., ~ .-....---
! Choctaws, etc.--had their abode in the
earth. under the mud and soft places
near the rivers and streams, out of which
| they sometimes come and baslx in the
sunshine. They were more like lobster
! or crayfsh than human beings, and
/ walked on all fours,' or rather on their
claws.
"Their principal place of residence
was great limestone cave, far down in
the bowels IF the earth, where there was
no light nothing but zimmerman dark
ness, and they had no language, nor
could they understand a word that was
! spoken to them.
1.-The entrance to this cave was posi-
bic only by wiggling down through the
mud, and they used to scamper away
/
Choctaws were for many generations
unable to get near them, although they
would lay in wait for them for months.
Zone day, however, a number of them
were surprised 50 suddenly that they did
not have time to go their usual route
! through the mud-into their cave, but
were forced into it by secret opening
| they had in the rocks!
"The Choctaws then attempted to
smoke them out, and at last. by persist
ent effort, succeeded. They treated them
kindly, taught them to talk Choctaw, to
walk erect, made them cut off their toe
nails and pull out the hair from their
bodies. After which they adopted them
into the tribe, but the majority of them
are still under ground
Ball playing seems to be common
among all tribes, but it is conceded that
/ the Choctaws, in their primitiveness,
were the most skilled in this game. OF
course it is not at all similar to the Amer
| lean national game in any particular,
and is played with two bats or sticks.
These sticks are bent into an oval loop
/ at one end, with web of fine buck
skin thongs stretched across them to
prevent the ball from falling out when
caught or tossed. One of these bats is
/ held in each hand, and the players catch
the ball by jumping into the air, and
throw it from the bats, never allowed to
strike it TOR catch it with their hands In
every house | visited | saw one or more
pairs of these peculiar bats, according to
the number of male residents.
In the primitive days of these people,
it was an invariable law of the game
that no player should wear moccasisn
on his feet, and appear only with the
prescribed dress; that is. in his 'breech-
clout," a beautiful head belt. and tail
made of white horse hair or quilts, and
name around his neck constructed of
the same material as the tail, dyed in
colors.
The match was usually made up
months before the day agreed upon, and
led by two champions, or captains, as
we should call them. These two cap
tains had the power to go through the
tribe, from village to village, and alter.
nately choose the men for their re-
spective sides. This choice of PLAYERS
was effected generally by proxy; two
runners were sent armed with a pair of
"ball sticks" deliberately ornamented
with paint, ribbons and other gewgaws,
which, touched by the players selected,
was an evidence that they accepted, and
would be on hand at the time specified
and prepared to take part.
Each set of players erected on the
ground where the game was to take place
two upright poles about thirty feet high,
and six feet apart, across the top of which
another pole was fastened. These goals,
or "byes,' as they were called were
some eight hundred feet apart; at
point just half way between those goals
was driven a small stake, where the bali
was to be thrown into the air at a given
signal, usually the firing of gun.
All these preliminaries were arranged
by old men, who were the judges or UNI
pires of the game; they drew line
from one goal to the other, across which
all the betting was made and placed in
the possession of "stake holders" the
night before the game commenced.
Everything conceivable that wigwam or
field possessed was staked, and princi-
pally by the women of the tribe as bet
tors.
On that night, too, all the players as
sembled around their respective "byes,"
where. under the glow of torches, the
beating of ''tom-toms' and the songs of
the squaws, they for more than quar-
ter of an hour INDUCED in the pictur-
esque 'Ball-Play dance in their proper
dress, and rafting their sticks together,
all the time chanting as loud as they
could. Meanwhile the women who had
stalled their goods formed themselves in
two rows ON the Zine" between the re-
spective players and also danced. join
ing in musical appeals to the Great
Spirit to decide the game in favor of
their side.
At the small stake, from which the
ball was to be thrown at the opening of
the game on the morrow. four old "med-
iciue men" who were to perform the act
of throwing the ball, were busily puff