PART II

GAMES


INDIAN GAMES

INTRODUCTION.--All the games here presented have been played in our land
for untold generations, while traces of the articles used for them have
been found in the oldest remains on this continent. According to Dr.
Stewart Culin, the well-known authority on Indian and other games, "There
is no evidence that these games were imported into America at any time
either before or after the conquest. On the other hand they appear to be
the direct and natural outgrowth of aboriginal institutions in America."
Dr. Culin calls attention to the reference to games in the myths of the
various tribes. Among those of the Pueblo people mention is made of the
divine Twins who live in the east and the west, rule the day and the night,
the Summer and the Winter, "Always contending they are the original patrons
of play and their games are the games now played by men." (Bureau of
American Ethnology, Vol. 24, p. 32.) It would lead too far afield to follow
the interesting relation between ceremonials and games, a relation that is
not peculiar to the culture found on the American Continent but which
obtains the world around. The environment of man in general outline is much
the same everywhere; the sun ever rises in the east and sets in the west;
day and night always follow each other; the winds play gently or rend with
force; the rains descend in showers or fall in floods; flowers and trees
spring up, come to maturity and then die. Therefore, when man has