As has been said in another connection, the adult Indian appears seldom to do anything purely for fun. Almost the only games indulged in for mere amusement, as we play them, are the simple ones of the children, who, like children everywhere, play at the occupations of their elders. Imitative warfare, however, is not confined to these men of smaller growth, with their bows and arrows.[251] Cat’s cradle, which we think of as a childish amusement but which is played by adults the world around, is regarded by most authorities as being without religious significance. But, as Culin says,[252] it is known by “every tribe of whom direct enquiry was made,” and the Zuñis believe that this string-game was taught by the Spider Woman to the war gods for their netted shields. The distinguished English anthropologist, Dr. Alfred Haddon, and his daughter collected several hundred forms of cat’s cradle among the South Sea Islanders, and on their way back to England lingered in Arizona, where, with Dr. Alfred Tozzer’s help, they identified more than a dozen varieties of the game among the Navajos, some of which appeared to have a ritualistic significance. Mr. Culin was told by Dr. Bernard Haile of St. Michael, Arizona, that the Navajos have a legend to the effect that the holy spiders taught them how to make the numerous figures of stars, bears, coyotes, snakes, and so forth, on the solemn condition that the game should be played in winter only, because then snakes and spiders are asleep and cannot see them. Certain death was sure to overtake anyone playing at any other season. But Dr. Haile could not discover any deeper religious use or meaning. To conclude: games, like every other aspect and detail of the Indian community, are socio-religious in essence, and hark back in many tribes to their origin myths. Here we find the description of a series of contests in which the demiurge—first man, culture hero—overcomes some foe of the human race by exercise of superior cunning, skill or magic. [The primal gamblers seem always to have been] the divine Twins, miraculous offspring of the Sun, who live in the East and West, who rule night and day; summer and winter. They are the morning and evening stars. Their virgin mother, who appears also as sister and wife, is constantly spoken of as their grandmother, and is the Moon or the Earth, or the Spider Woman, the embodiment of the feminine principle in Nature. Always contending, they are the principal patrons of play and their games are the games now played by men.[253] [Such a condition of mind almost justifies Bandelier’s strong statement that] the Indian with all his democratic institutions, in society as in religion is the merest slave. His life is the best exemplification of what a many-headed tyranny can achieve. Every step is controlled by religious fear.[254] Chapter XVIII POTTERY