Indian Games : an historical researchDavis, Andrew McFarland
History
Indian Games : an historical research
Davis, Andrew McFarland
Dice; Indians of North America -- Games
Mackenzie [Footnote: Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages in 1789 and 1893
London, 1801, p. 311.] fell in with some Indians near the Pacific coast
who travelled with him a short distance. They carried with them the
implements for gambling. Their game was different from the guessing
games which have been heretofore described. "There were two players and
each had a bundle of about fifty small sticks neatly polished, of the
size of a quill, and five inches long. A certain number of their sticks
had red lines round them and as many of these as one of the players
might find convenient were curiously rolled up in dried grass, and
according to the judgment of his antagonist respecting their number and
marks he lost or won."
The same game was seen at Queen Charlotte Islands by Francis Poole.
[Footnote: Queen Charlotte Island, a narrative etc., p. 25.] He says
there were in this game from "forty to fifty round pins or pieces of
wood, five inches long by one-eighth of an inch thick, painted in black
and blue rings and beautifully polished." These pins were divided into
two heaps under cover of bark fibre and the opposite player guessed odd
or even for one of the piles.
CONTESTS OF SKILL.
Lewis and Clarke [Footnote: Vol. II, p. 140.] describe a game among the
Oregon Indians which can neither be called an athletic game nor a game
of chance, but which seems to have been a simple contest of skill. "Two
pins are placed on the floor, about the distance of a foot from each
other, and a small hole made behind them. The players then go about ten
feet from the hole, into which they try to roll a small piece,
resembling the men used at draughts; if they succeed in putting it into
the hole, they win the stake; if the piece rolls between the pins, but
does not go into the hole, nothing is won or lost; but the wager is
wholly lost if the chequer rolls outside the pins."
Morgan [Footnote: League of the Iroquois, p. 303.] describes a winter
contest of skill among the Iroquois, which he calls snow-snake. The
so-called snakes were made of hickory. They were from five to seven feet
in length, a quarter of an inch in thickness, tapering from an inch in
width at the head to about half an inch at the tail. The head was round,
turned up slightly and weighted with lead. This implement was shot along
the snow crust, by hand, with great speed, and a point in the game was
gained by the snake which ran the greatest distance. When there were a
number of players divided into sides, if there were two, three or more
snakes of the same side which were in advance of the snakes of the other
side, all such counted. Such contests usually took place between tribes
and aroused a great degree of spirit and the usual amount of betting. In
simpler form, Sagard Theodat describes this kind of amusement.
OTHER AMUSEMENTS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account