Ardent as the spirit of the contest must necessarily have been under
such circumstances, among a people where courage and physique counted
for so much, their intense passion for gambling intervened to fan into
fiercer flames the spirits of the contesting players and to inspire them
to more earnest efforts. Stakes, often of the utmost consequence to the
players and their backers, were wagered upon the games. A reputation for
courage, for skill and for endurance, was the most valuable possession
of the Indian. The maintenance of this was to a certain extent involved
in each game that he played. Oftentimes in addition to this, all of his
own possessions and the property of his friends and neighbors in the
form of skins and beads were staked upon the result of the contest. In
games where so much was involved, we need not be surprised to learn from
Perrot that limbs were occasionally broken and that sometimes players
were even killed. In the notes to Perrot's Memoir it is stated that some
anonymous annotator has written across the margin of Perrot's manuscript
at this point: [Footnote: Perrot. Note 1, Ch. x. p. 187.] "False,
neither arms nor legs are broken, nor are players ever killed." We
scarcely need the corroboratory statements of La Potherie [Footnote:
Vol. II, pp. 126-137.] that "these games are ordinarily followed by
broken heads, arms and legs, and often people are killed at them;" and
also of LaHontan, [Footnote: Vol. II, p. 113.] that "they tear their
skins and break their legs" at them, to satisfy us that Perrot rather
than his critic is to be believed. If no such statements had been made,
we should infer that so violent a game, on which stakes of such vital
importance were placed, could not be played by a people like the
Indians, except with such results. Notwithstanding the violence of the
game and the deep interest which the players and spectators took in it,
the testimony of historians is uniform to the effect that accidental
injuries received during its progress produced no ill will. We have seen
that Perrot states that if anyone attempted to hold the ball with _his