110 INDIAN GAMES. 



who had lost their legghigs at one of these games and Avho 

 returned to their village in three feet of snow as cheertul 

 in appearance as if they had won. There seems to have 

 been no limit to which they would not go in their stakes 

 while under the excitement of the game. Clothing, wife, 

 family and sometimes the personal liberty of the player 

 himself rested in the hazard of the die.*^ 



The women often played the game by themselves, though 

 apparently with less formality than characterized the great 

 matches. The latter frequently assumed the same local 

 characteristics that we have seen in the game of lacrosse, 

 and we hear of village being pitted against village as a 

 frequent feature of the game.^" 



Morgan^^ describes a game played by the Iroquois 

 with buttons or dice made of elk-horn, rounded and pol- 

 ished and blackened on one side. The players spread a 

 blanket on the ground; and the dice were tossed with the 

 h:md in the air and permitted to fall on the blanket. The 

 counts were determined as in the game of platter by the 

 color of the sides of the dice which were exposed when they 

 settled. The number of the dice was eight. 



In Perrot's'- description of the game of platter he al- 

 ludes to a game, played with eight dice, on a blanket in 

 precisely this way, but he adds that it was practised by 

 women and girls. La Potherie^^ says that the women 

 sometimes play at platter, but (n-dinarily they cast the 

 fruit stones with the hand as one throws dice. 



Under the name of "hubbub" this game has also been 



"Chtirlevoix, Vol. in, p. 261. Le Gniiid Voyage du Pays des Hurons, par Ga- 

 briel Siigard Theodat, Paris, 163-2, Nouvelle Edition, Paris, 18(55, p. 85; llelations 

 do Jesiiites, Relation de la Nouvelle France, en PAnn^e 1639, pp. 95-96; Lafitau, 

 Vol. II, p. 341. 



r I Perrot. p. 43; Flistoirc du Canada, par F. X. Garneau. Vol. i, p. 115. 

 61 League of the Iroquois, p. 30i. " Perrot, p. 50. '^ La Polherie, Vol. ill, p. 23. 



