INDIAN GAMES

AN HISTORICAL RESEARCH

BY ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS




"There are," says Father Brebeuf in his account of what was worthy of
note among the Hurons in 1636, [Footnote: Relations des Jesuites,
Quebec, 1858, p. 113.] "three kinds of games particularly in vogue with
this people; cross, platter, and straw. The first two are, they say,
supreme for the health. Does not that excite our pity? Lo, a poor sick
person, whose body is hot with fever, whose soul foresees the end of
his days, and a miserable sorcerer orders for him as the only cooling
remedy, a game of cross. Sometimes it is the invalid himself who may
perhaps have dreamed that he will die unless the country engages in a
game of cross for his health. Then, if he has ever so little credit,
you will see those who can best play at cross arrayed, village against
village, in a beautiful field, and to increase the excitement, they
will wager with each other their beaver skins and their necklaces of
porcelain beads."

"Sometimes also one of their medicine men will say that the whole
country is ill and that a game of cross is needed for its cure. It is
not necessary to say more. The news incontinently spreads everywhere.
The chiefs in each village give orders that all the youths shall do
their duty in this respect, otherwise some great calamity will overtake
the country."