goals in a game with eighty players at "half a league apart" meaning
probably half a mile. LaHontan estimates the distance between the goals
at "five or six hundred paces." Adair, [Footnote: Henry, p. 78
Chulevoix Vol. III, p. 319, Kane's Wanderings, p. 189, LaHontan, Vol.
II, p. 113; Adair, p. 400.] who is an intelligent writer, and who was
thoroughly conversant with the habits and customs of the Cherokees,
Choctaws, and Chicasaws estimates the length of the field at "five
hundred yards," while Romans [Footnote: A concise Natural History of
East and West Florida, by Capt Bernard Romans New York, 1770, p. 79.]
in describing the goals uses this phrase "they fix two poles across
each other at about a hundred and fifty feet apart." Bossu [Footnote:
Vol. I, p. 104 Similarly, Pickett (History of Alabama, Vol. I, p. 92)
describes a game among the Creeks in which there was but one goal
consisting of two poles erected in the centre of the field between
which the ball must pass to count one. He cites "Butram," and the
"Narrative of a Mission to the Creek Nation by Col. Mammus Willet," is
his authorities neither of them sustains him on this point.] speaks as
if in the game which he saw played there was but a single goal. He says
"They agree upon a mark or aim about sixty yards off, and distinguished
by two great poles, between which the ball is to pass."

The goals among the northern Indians were single posts at the ends of
the field. It is among the southern Indians that we first hear of two
posts being raised to form a sort of gate through or over which the
bull must pass. Adair says, "they fix two bending poles into the
ground, three yards apart below, but slanting a considerable way
outwards." The party that happens to throw the ball "over these counts
one; but if it be thrown underneath, it is cast back and played for as
usual." The ball is to be thrown "through the lower part" of the two
poles which are fixed across each other at about one hundred and fifty