The game began about nine o'clock in the morning in a great
natural meadow surrounded by forest. The rival sides assembled
opposite each other and bet heavily. All the stakes, under the
law of the game, were laid upon the ground in heaps here, and
they consisted of the articles most precious to the Iroquois. In
these heaps were rifles, tomahawks, scalping knives, wampum,
strips of colored beads, blankets, swords, belts, moccasins,
leggins, and a great many things taken as spoil in forays on the
white settlements, such is small mirrors, brushes of various
kinds, boots, shoes, and other things, the whole making a vast
assortment.

These heaps represented great wealth to the Iroquois, and the
older chiefs sat beside them in the capacity of stakeholders and
judges.

The combatants, ranged in two long rows, numbered at least five
hundred on each side, and already they began to show an
excitement approaching that which animated them when they would
go into battle. Their eyes glowed, and the muscles on their
naked backs and chests were tense for the spring. In order to
leave their limbs perfectly free for effort they wore no clothing
at all, except a little apron reaching from the waist to the
knee.

The extent of the playground was marked off by two pair of "byes"
like those used in cricket, planted about thirty rods apart. But
the goals of each side were only about thirty feet apart.