The Chunkge stone and it's game

Above two views of a stone pipe, recovered in Muskogee county, Oklahoma. Below is the game using the chungke stone. As described in 1775, by James Adair. "The warriors have another favorite game called chungke, which, with propriety of language, may be called 'running hard labor.' they have near their state-house a square piece of ground well cleared, and fine sand is carefully strewn over it, when requisite, to promote a swifter motion to what they throw along the surface. Only one of two on a side play at this ancient game. They have a stone about two fingers broad at the edge, and two spans round; each party has a pole of about eight feet long smooth and tapering at each end, the points flat. They set off abreast of each other at six yards from the end of the play-ground; then one of them hurls the *** stone disk *** on it's edge, in as direct a line as he can, a considerable distance toward the middle of the other end of the square. When they have run a few yards, each darts his pole anointed with bear's oil, with a proper force, as near as he can guess in proportion to the motion of the stone, that the end may lie close to the stone'. When this is the case, the person counts two of the game, and, in proportion to the nearness of the poles to the mark, one is counted, unless by measuring both are found to be at an equal distance from the stone. In this manner, players will keep running most part of the day, at half speed, under the violent heat of the sun, staking their silver ornaments, there nose, finger, and ear rings; their breast, arm and wrist-plates; and even all their wearing apparel, except that which barely covers their middle. All the American Indians are much addicted to this game, which to us appears to be a task of stupid drudgery; it seems, however, to be of early origin, when their fore fathers used diversions as simple as their manners. The hurling-stones they use at present were, time immemorial, rubbed smooth on the rocks, and with prodigious labor; they are kept with the strictest religious care, from one generation to another, and are exempted from being buried with the dead. They belong to the town where they are used, and are carefully preserved."

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