On fields of a quarter or half a mile, it was left comparatively unprotected, unless the game was pressing hard towards it; but on moderate sized fields it was common to have special men posted, unless the number of players was unusually small. Basil Hall, writing of the Creeks of Alabama, and of a game he saw in a field 200 yards long, fifty players on a side, says, “I observed that each of the goals or wickets, formed by the two boughs at the ends, was guarded by a couple of the most expert players, whose duty it was to prevent the ball passing through the opening;—the especial object of their antagonists.”
An observer, looking at our game, easily signals out the special man who defends the flags, because the goal-keeper is nearly always at his post; but it is quite probable that the specialty in the original game, may not have been noticed as particularly by others as it was by Hall; as the Indian game was more individual, and every man on the field was ambitious of carrying the ball to the goal. The original goal-keeper did not fear long shots, or sudden sallies, as the play had little system after it began, and the only principle of every
