When, therefore, the Christian missionaries made the astounding and appalling announcement to the native dwellers that they were under the awful doom of eternal punishment, they aroused, by adding a supernatural terror, a superhuman determination in the breast of the Indian to rid his land forever of the blasphemous invaders. When this proved impossible to effect by force of arms, they apparently yielded to “conversion,” but only to cherish the more sacredly their old rites and beliefs, so that, gradually fusing the two more or less, they have to-day an inextricable complex of ritual. What does the American government think it is likely to gain by a suppression of these moral and social laws, with their ancestry of centuries? NOTE.—While this chapter was in proof, there came to hand _Manito Masks_, by Hartley Alexander. This small volume gives a subtle and illuminating epitome of “the three key-forms of Indian aesthetic—Rhythm, Song and Spectacle.” From these, in combination with subordinate _motifs_, the Indian weaves his symbolic and dramatic ritual wherein is depicted all the mystery of man’s life and death. Chapter XVII INDIAN GAMES While the common and secular object of the games of the North American Indians appears to be purely a manifestation of the desire for amusement or gain, they are performed also as religious ceremonies, as rites pleasing to the gods to secure their favor, or as processes of sympathetic magic to drive away sickness, avert evil, or to produce rain and the fertilization and reproduction of plants and animals.—CULIN. The subject of games will be treated here only as one aspect of the sociologic interpretation of Indian life. Not to mention games would be to ignore an important element of youthful training and of adult life in every pueblo. Yet the subject is difficult to make vivid, unless one has watched the special sport described. Mr. Stewart Culin, to whom we owe most of our knowledge of Indian games, and to whose work I wish here to acknowledge great indebtedness, has given us a monograph profusely illustrated. To it,[247] and to the many museum collections of the implements employed in Indian sports, the especially interested reader must go for more than a superficial acquaintance with them.