But the goals of each side were only about thirty feet apart.
At a signal from the oldest of the chiefs the contestants arranged themselves in two parallel lines facing each other, inside the area and about ten rods apart.

Every man was armed with a strong stick three and a half to four feet in length, and curving toward the end.

Upon this curved end was tightly fastened a network of thongs of untanned deerskin, drawn until they were rigid and taut.

The ball with which they were to play was made of closely wrapped elastic skins, and was about the size of an ordinary apple.
At the end of the lines, but about midway between them, sat the chiefs, who, besides being judges and stakeholders, were also score keepers.
They kept tally of the game by cutting notches upon sticks.

Every time one side put the ball through the other's goal it counted one, but there was an unusual power exercised by the chiefs, practically unknown to the games of white men.