The children had a lively game, like our “catcher,” in which all the players tried to get away from one of their number, at whom they sang derisively:
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Boys played a rough game of kicking each other from two opposing sides, to see which would give way first; and a game called “playing bear,” that was popular while swimming. They caught one of their number and tossed him into deep water and scampered away. When he got ashore he ran after them until he caught another boy, and then they all joined in tossing him into the water.
The boys also had a curious arrow game, in which they shot at a stake, trying to hit it, or to come as near as possible. If the second in turn were doubtful whether he could shoot better than the first, he went to the stake and danced for power to win, beating time with his arrow on the stake and singing: “I am the one who can hit the stake arrow first.” [[197]]
If the second player made a good shot, the third danced at the stake to beat him, and so on.
Women had a game of throwing arrows at a target, also a four-stick gambling game, using marked buffalo bones.
The favorite gambling game with young men was to roll a small wheel over a smooth stretch of ground. Two players followed it, trying to throw, so that the wheel would not fall on their arrows. Their comrades held the stakes and kept score. Whenever a play was finished one side would shout: “Give us one point”; or the other side: “We get two points.” If a player gambled away all his possessions, he was said “to walk the prairie.”
Near sunset I left the valley and climbed Lookout Butte, a high hill where Brings-Down-the-Sun was accustomed to go to meditate and dream. Its summit was covered with wiry grass in bunches, and creeping cedar which grew in great clumps, forming mats with branches growing close to the ground.
From the top of the butte I had a broad view of the Rocky Mountains, the pine forests on the Porcupine Hills in the north, and the surrounding plains for miles. There I waited for the sun to set.