assuming sometimes the aspect of a battle. Blows with the
formidable sticks were given and received. Brown skins were
streaked with blood, heads were cracked, and a Cayuga was killed.
Such killings were not unusual in these games, and it was always
considered the fault of the man who fell, due to his own
awkwardness or unwariness. The body of the dead Cayuga was taken
away in disgrace.

All day long the contest was waged with undiminished courage and
zeal, party relieving party. The meadow and the surrounding
forest resounded with the shouts and yells of combatants and
spectators. The old squaws were in a perfect frenzy of
excitement, and their shrill screams of applause or condemnation
rose above every other sound.

On this occasion, as the contest did not last longer than one
day, the chiefs never cut down the score of the leading side.
The game closed at sunset, with the Senecas and Onondagas
triumphant, and richer by far than they were in the morning. The
Mohawks and Cayugas retired, stripped of their goods and
crestfallen.

Timmendiquas and Thayendanegea, acting as umpires watched the
game closely to its finish, but not so the renegades Braxton
Wyatt and Blackstaffe. They and Quarles had wandered eastward
with some Delawares, and had afterward joined the band of
Wyandots, though Timmendiquas gave them no very warm welcome.
Quarles had left on some errand a few days before. They had
rejoiced greatly at the trapping of the four, one by one, in the
deep bush. But they had felt anger and disappointment when the