30 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [ETH. ANN. 24 
inquiries of the Indians, and freely placed the field notes and manu- 
scripts which he himself had intended for publication, in the hands 
of the writer. A trip through the Indian reservations made with 
Doctor Dorsey in the summer of 1900 resulted in the collection of 
much new material, and subsequent trips made by the writer alone in 
1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1905 yielded satisfactory results. 
In 1898, on the invitation of Dr W J McGee, of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, the writer arranged with the Bureau for the 
publication of the present volume. It contains a classified and illus- 
trated list of practically all the American Indian gaming imple- 
ments in American and European museums, together with a more 
or less exhaustive summary of the entire literature of the subject. 
The collection has been confined to games in which implements are 
employed, and the argument rests directly on the testimony afforded 
by them. Indian children have many amusements which they play 
without implements, such as tag, etc., corresponding to those of civi- 
lization, but these belong to a different category from those herein 
described, and their exclusion does not affect the questions under dis- 
cussion. Since the relation and, in no small degree, the significance 
of the games become through comparison self-evident, the writer has 
retained the catalogue form for his work, prefacing the whole with a 
general dissertation and each of the several divisions into which the 
games naturally fall, with a short introduction. 
In conclusion, the writer desires to express his obligations to Amer- 
ican and foreign students and collectors, who have generously placed 
at his disposal material which they have zealously collected. His 
thanks are due also to the Chief of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology and the curators of the United States National Museum, who 
have in every way aided and facilitated his work. 
