90 INDIAN GAMES. 



needed for its cure. It is not necessary to say more. The 

 iieAvs incontinently spreads everywhere. The chiefs in 

 each viUage give orders that all the youths shall do their 

 duty in this respect, otherwise sonic great calamity will 

 overtake the country." 



LACROSSE. 



In 1007, Nicolas Perrot, then acting as agent of the 

 French government, was received near Saut Sainte Marie 

 with stately courtesy and formal ceremony by the ^Sliamis, 

 to whom he was deputed. A few days after his arrival, 

 the chief of that nation gave him, as an entertainment, a 

 game of lacrosse.^ " More than two thousand persons 

 assembled in a great plain each with his cross. A wooden 

 ball about the size of a tennis Ijall was tossed in the air. 

 From that moment there was a constant movement of all 

 these crosses which made a noise like that of arms which 

 one hears during a battle. Half the savages tried to send 

 the ball to the northwest the length of the field, the 

 others wished to make it go to the southeast. The con- 

 test which lasted for a half hour was doubtful." 



In 1763, an army of confederate nations, inspired by 

 the subtle influence of Pontiac's master mind, formed the 

 purpose of seizing the scattered forts held by the English 

 along the northwestern frontier. On the fourth day of 

 June of that year, the garrison at Fort Michilimackinac, 

 unconscious of their impending fate, thoughtlessly lolled 

 at the foot of the palisade and whiled away the day in 

 watching the swaying fortunes of a game of ball which 

 was being played by some Indians in front of the stock- 

 ade. Alexander Henry, who was on the spot at the time, 



^ Histoire de I'Am^rique Scptentrionale par JM. dc I5acqueville de la rotheiie, 

 Paris, 172'2, Vol. ll, 124 et seq. 



