IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 147 



Further, it was deemed of value as a remedial exercise for many 

 ills, and induced the aid of the sorcerers of life who could hasten 

 the return to health. 



Stephen Powers found lacrosse among the California Indians. 

 Of his early discoveries among the Pomas Indians, in Russian river 

 valley, he writes: " They played it (lacrosse) with a ball rounded 

 out of an oak knot, propelled by a racket constructed of a long 

 slender stick bent double and bound together leaving a circular 

 hoop at the end, across which is woven a coarse mesh work of 

 strings. Such an instrument is not strong enough to bat the ball 

 but simply to shove or thrust it along the ground." 



Bernard Romaine in 1776 writes of the goals of this game, " they 

 fix two poles across each other at about one hundred and fifty 

 feet apart." 



• Bossu noted that "the Choctaws play with only one goal. The 

 players agree upon an aim, about sixty yards off, distinguished by 

 two poles, between which the ball must pass." 



La Honton estimated the distance between the goals at five or 

 six hundred paces. Charlevoix places the goals in a game with 

 eighty players, at half a league apart. Alexander Henry, in 1809, 

 writing of the game in northern Canada, mentioned one mile as the 

 distance between the goals. Paul Kane says " the goals of the 

 Chinooks, Crees, Chippawas and Sioux are one mile apart, and one 

 hundred players on a side." Domench wrote *' the players were 

 costumed with short drawers, or rather a belt, the body being first 

 daubed with a layer of bright colors. From the belt which is short 

 enough to leave the thigh free, hangs a long animal tail. Round 

 their necks is a necklace of animals' teeth to which is attached a 

 floating mane dyed red, as is the tail, falling as a fringe over the 

 chest and shoulders." He adds: " Some tribes play with two sticks 

 and the game is played on the ice. The ball is made of wood or 

 brick, covered with kid skin leather curiously interwoven." 



Schoolcraft describes the game as played in the winter on the 

 ice; and Catlin has illustrated the Dacotahs in their ice game. 

 Adair wrote that the southern Indians played " with two rackets, 

 between which the ball was caught. These sticks were neces- 

 sarily shorter than those of the northern Indians, being about two 

 feet long. With these they threw the ball a great distance. The 

 Choctaws also used two rackets. The Pacific coast Indians started 

 the game by throwing into the air a ball of doeskin. This ball was 

 always thrown by a woman selected for her beauty." 



One historical fact of lacrosse figures in the frontier wars of 1763, 



