INDIAN GAMES. 107 



approached them and found that the game they were play- 

 ing at was what they called the game of platter. This is 

 the game to which the Indians are addicted above all 

 others. They sometimes lose their rest and in some de- 

 gree their very senses at it. They stake all they are worth, 

 and several of them have been known to continue at it till 

 they have stript themselves stark naked and lost all their 

 movables in their cabin. Some have been known to stake 

 their liberty for a certain time. This circumstance proves 

 beyond all doubt how passionately fond they are of it, 

 there being no people in the world more jealous of their 

 liberty than our Indians." 



In the description which Charlevoix then gives, he has 

 relied partly upon personal observations and also to some 

 extent, upon accounts which were at that time in manu- 

 script in Quebec and which were easily accessible to 

 him. He was himself an intelligent observer and a cul- 

 tivated man. His history and his letters, although not 

 free from the looseness of expression which pervades con- 

 temporaneous accounts show on the whole the disci- 

 pline of an educated mind. We learn from him and from 

 the authorities heretofore enumerated that two players 

 only from each side could participate in this game at any 

 given time during its progress. The necessary imple- 

 ments were a bowl and a number of dice fashioned some- 

 what like apricot seeds, and colored differently upon the 

 upper and lower sides. Generally, one side was white 

 and the other black. The number of these dice was gen- 

 erally six. There was no fixed rule as to the materials of 

 which they were made ; sometimes they were of bone ; 

 sometimes the stones of fruits were used. The impor- 

 tant point was that the centre of gravity of each die 

 should be so placed, that when it was thrown into the 

 air, or when the bowl in which it was placed, was vio- 



