96 INDIAN GAMES. 



act of sheer obstinacy. When accidents of this kind 

 happen, the unfortunate withdraws quietly from the game 

 if he can do so. If his injury will not permit him, his 

 relations carry him to the cabin and the game continues 

 until it is finished as if nothing had happened." 



" When the sides are equal the players will occupy an 

 entire afternoon without either side gaining any advan- 

 tage ; at other times one of the two will gain the two 

 games that they need to win. In this game you would 

 say to see them run that they looked like two parties 

 who wanted to fight. This exercise contributes much to 

 render the savages alert and prepared to avoid blows 

 from the tomahawk of an enemy, when they find them- 

 selves in a combat. Without being told in advance that 

 it was a game, one might truly believe that they fought 

 in open country. Whatever accident the game may cause, 

 they attribute it to the chance of the game and have no 

 ill will towards each other. The suffering is for the 

 wounded, who bear it contentedly as if nothing had hap- 

 pened, thus making it appear that they have a great deal 

 of courage and are men." 



" The side that wins takes whatever has been put up on 

 the game and whatever there is of profit, and that without 

 any dispute on the part of the others when it is a question 

 of paying, no matter what the kind of game. Neverthe- 

 less, if some person who is not in the game, or who has 

 not bet anything, should throw the ball to the advan- 

 tage of one side or the other, one of those whom the 

 throw would not help would attack him, demanding if 

 this is his affair and why he has mixed himself with it. 

 They often come to quarrels about this and if some of the 

 chiefs did not reconcile them, there would be blood shed 

 and perhaps some killed." 



Originally, the game was open to any number of com- 



