McoEE] CEREMONIES GAMES MUSIC 175 



of the early observers the observauces were uotbiiig more tban mean- 

 ingless mummeries ; to some they were sacrilegious, to others sortile- 

 gious; to the more careful students, like Carver, whose notes are of 

 especial value by reason of the author's clear insight into the Indian 

 character, they were invocations, exiiiations, propitiations, expressing 

 profound and overpowering devotion. Carver says of the ''Xaudo- 

 wessie," "They usually dance either before or after every meal; and 

 by this cheerfulness, probably, render the Great Spirit, to whom they 

 consider themselves as indebted for every good, a more acceptable 

 sacrifice tlian a formal and unanimated thanksgiving;'" and he pro- 

 ceeds to describe the informal dances as well as the more formal cere- 

 monials preparatory to joining in the chase or setting out on the 

 warpath. The ceremonial observances of the Siouan tribes were not 

 dift'erent in kind from those of neighboring contemporaries, yet some 

 of them were developed in remarkable degree — for example, the bloody 

 rites by which youths were raised to the rank of warriors in some of 

 the prairie tribes were without i^arallel in severity among the aborig- 

 ines of America, or even among the known primitive peoples of the 

 world. So the s])orts of the Siouan Indians were both diversional and 

 divinatory, and the latter were highly organized in a manner reflecting 

 the environment of the tribes, their culture-status, their belief, and 

 especially their disposition toward bloodshed ; for their most charac- 

 teristic ceremonials were connected, genetically if not immediately, 

 with warfare and the chase. 



Among many of the Siouan tribes, games of chance were played 

 habitually and with great avidity, both men and women becoming so 

 absorbed as to forget avocations and food, mothers even neglecting 

 their children; for, as among other primitive peoples, the charm of 

 hazard was greater than among the enlightened. The games were not 

 specially distinctive, and were less widely differentiated than in certain 

 other Indian stocks. The sport or game of chungke stood high in favor 

 among the young men in many of the tribes, and was played as a game 

 partly of chance, partlj- of skill; but dice games (played with plum 

 stones among the southwestern prairie tribes) were generally preferred, 

 especially by the women, children, and older men. The games were 

 partly, sometimes wholly, diversional, but generally they were in large 

 part divinatory, and thus reflected the hazardous occupations and low 

 culture-status of the people. One of the evils resulting from the advent 

 of the whites was the introduction of new games of chance which tended 

 further to pervert the simple Siouan mind; but in time the evil brought 

 its own remedy, for association with white gamblers taught the ingenu- 

 ous sortilegers that there is nothing divine or sacred about the gaming 

 table or the conduct of its votaries. 



The primitive Siouan music was limited to the chant and rather 

 simple vocal melody, accompanied by rattle, drum, and flute, the drum 

 among the northwestern tribes being a skin bottle or bag of water. 



' Od. cit., p. 265. 



