388 The Smithsonian Instihition 



rampart-protected bogs afford a striking record of the char- 

 acteristics of the people. 



The games of the Indians have been carefully studied by 

 several collaborators, and have been found to illustrate the 

 natural history of amusement, and thus to form a basis for 

 the science of esthetology. The simpler games have been 

 found to be mimetic ; commonly the diversion mimics the in- 

 dustry, whether it be the care of children or house on the part 

 of the girl, or hunting, fighting, and racing on the part of the 

 boy ; while other games imitate social and religious obser- 

 vances. Some of the simplest amusements remain purely 

 diversional ; others develop into elaborate games and arts of 

 pleasure. An important factor in modifying native games 

 grows out of the mythologic tendency of the Indian mind ; 

 objects and forces which are not understood are deemed 

 " mysterious " (transcendental or supernatural, so far as civil- 

 ized language can express primitive concept), and thus the 

 result of a throw, a race, or a shot is ascribed to fate, and 

 througrh association effort comes to be reg^arded as an invo- 

 cation. In this way the organized games become divinatory. 

 This curious relation is well brought out in different publica- 

 tions by Mr. Gushing, Mr. Mooney, and Mrs. Stevenson, and 

 in a recent memoir by Doctor Hoffman which deals with 

 Indian jugglery.^ Other lines of esthetic development lead 

 toward graphic expression, and thus blend with decoration 

 and eventually with pictorial and conventional symbolism, in 

 which there is always a mythologic or divinatory element, as 

 shown by Doctor Fewkes. 



Major Powell's researches among the Indians of the Rocky 

 Mountain region led to the discrimination of certain stages in 

 the development of social organization. The most fundamen- 



1 "The Menomini Indians," in Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 

 1896, pages 3-328. See also ibid., pages li-liv. 



