ULLET1N 



XlsTSTITTJTIE. 



VOL. 17. SALEM: JULY, AUG., SEPT., 1885. Nos. 7-9. 



INDIAN GAMES. 



BY ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS. 



"THERE are," says Father Brebeuf in his account of 

 what was worthy of note among the Hurons in 1636, 1 

 "three kinds of games particularly in vogue with this peo- 

 ple ; cross, platter, and straw. The first two are, they 

 say, supreme for the health. Does not that excite our 

 pity? Lo, a poor sick person, whose body is hot with 

 fever, whose soul foresees the end of his days, and a mis- 

 erable sorcerer orders for him as the only cooling remedy, 

 a game of cross. Sometimes it is the invalid himself who 



O 



may perhaps have dreamed that he will die unless the 

 country engages in a game of cross for his health. Then, 

 if he has ever so little credit, you will see those who can 

 best play at cross arrayed, village against village, in a 

 beautiful field, and to increase the excitement, they will 

 wager with each other their beaver skins and their neck- 

 laces of porcelain beads." 



" Sometimes also one of their medicine men will say 

 that the whole country is ill and that a game of cross is 



1 Relations des J6suites, Quebec, 1858, p. 113. 

 ESSEX IN8T. BULLETIN, VOL. XVII. 12 (89) 



