The Portland daily press., 1890-02-15
LEGENDS OF THE cHocTAWS.
Something about their Habits.
Correspondence of the Press. /

talk with The ChOctaw chief Peter
Pitchlynn, he told me of very curl
Gus legend in relation to the origin of a
subdivision of his tribe known as the
"Crawfish," or Crayfish band: "Our
people have among them q band who
formerly-but at very remote period
of antiquity, long before the separation
into Creeks (or Mus-Ro-ge Seminoles,
Choctaws, etc.--had their abode i'm the
earth, under the mud and soft places
near the rivers and streams, out of which
they sometimes come and bask in the
sunshine. They were more like lobster
or crayfish than human beings, and
walked ON 'all fours,' or rather ON their
claws.
"Their principal place of residence
was a great limestone cave, far down in
the bowels of the earth, where there was
no light, nothing but zimmerman dark
ness, and they had no language, nor
could they understand word that was
spoken to them.
The entrance to this cave was posi-
bic only by wiggling down through the
mud, and they used to scamper away
the moment they were seen, SO that the
Choctaws were for many generations
unable to get near them, although they
would lay in wait for them for months.
Zone day, however, number of them
were surprised so 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 rocksl
"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 groundl"
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 All 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 a 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 or catch it with their hands. In
every house l 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 We're 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 q given
signal, usually the firing of gun.
All these preliminaries We're 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
staked their goods formed themselves in
two rows on the cline" 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-
icine men" who were to perform the act
of throwing the ball, were busily puff
ing at their pipes, smoking to the Great
Spirit" for success in impartially judging
the game, as their duties of umpires de-
manded.
Sometimes seven or eight hundred
players took part in the game, and when
the contest commenced terrible strug-
gle ensued to catch the ball on their
sticks and throw it home between their
respective stakes, which counted one.
When this happened there was short
halt; then the ball was started again by
the judges, and whichever side in that
amnncr counted hundred won.