INDIAN GAMES. 97 



petitors. Accordino: to the Kelation of 1636, "Village 

 was pitted against village," " Tribe was matched against 

 tribe," says Perrot. The number engaged in the game 

 described by La Potherie^ was estimated by him at two 

 thousand. LaHontan' says that "the savages commonly 

 played it in large com[)anies of three or four hundred at 

 a time," while Charlevoix"^ says the number of players 

 was v^ariabic and adds " for instance if they are eighty," 

 thus showing about the number he would expect to find 

 in a game. When Morgan" speaks of six or eight on a 

 side, he must allude to a later period, probably after the 

 game was modified by the whites who had adopted it 

 among their amusements. ^- 



Our earliest accotmts of the game as played by the In- 

 dians in the south are about one hundred years later than 

 the corresponding records in the north. Adair" says the 



8Vol. II, P.12G. 



' Memoiies de L'Amciriqiie SBptentrionale, ou la Suite ties Voyages de Mr. Le 

 Baiou <le Lallontan, Amsicnlam, 1705, Vol. ir, p. 113. 



>" Ilistoire tie la Xouvellc France. Journal d'un Voyage, etc., par le P. do Char- 

 levoi-x, Paris, 1744. Vol. ill, p. 319. 



" League of the Iroquois, by Lewis H. Morgan, Rochester, 18.51, p. 294. 



"The game is also mentioned in An Account of ttie Remarkable Occurrences 

 in the Life and Travels of Col. Jame."! Smith during his Captivity with the Indians 

 in the years 1755-17.V.). Cincinnati, 1S70, p. 78. It is described by Col. William L. 

 Stone in his Lite of Brant, Albany, IStJu, Vol. II, p. 448. In one game of which he 

 speaks, the ball was started by a young and beautiful .squaw wlio was elaborately 

 dre^sed for tlie occasion. Nolwitll^landing tlie extent and value of Col. Stone's 

 contributions to the literature on'the subject of tlie North American Indians, he 

 makes the erroneous stati-ment that "The Six Nations had adopted from the 

 Whites the popular game of ball or cricket." See p. 44.'), same volume, c.f. The 

 Memoir upon tlie late War in Nortli America, n.i.'j-noO, by JI. Poucliot, translated 

 and edited by Franklin B. Hough, Vol. 11, p. 1U.7. A game of ball is also described 

 in Historical Collections of Georgia, by the Rev. George White, .3d edition, New 

 Vork, 1855, p. 670, whicli took place in Walker County, Georgia, between Chatooga 

 and Chicamauga. The ball was thrown up at the centre. The bats were described 

 as curiously carved spoons. If the ball touched the ground the play stopped and it 

 was thrown up again. Rev. J. Owen Dor.sey in a piper entitled "Omaha Soci- 

 ology," printed in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, etc., 

 1881-1882, Washington, 1884, §230, p. 330, describes the game amongst the Oniahas. 



•'The History of the American Indians, particularly those Nations adjoining to 

 the Mississippi, etc., by James Adair, London, 1775, p. 399. 

 ESSUX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XVII 13 



