Many of the sacred games are of an athletic character. Of these may
be mentioned the numerous races, including the kicking race in which
stones are carried on top of one foot, and the sacred game of ball.
One might include in the list the bow-women of the _Mamzrauti_
ceremony and basket throwers of the _Lalakonti_ ceremony, since it can
be seen that games are closely connected with primitive religious
beliefs and may all have originated as a form of divination, or some
other early attempts of man either to influence the beings or to spy
into the future. It may be that some games are remnants of
long-forgotten ceremonies, once of great import to early worshippers.
Of sedentary games there are a number. One like "fox and geese,"
called _totolospi_, is the _patoli_ of the Mexicans, which is said to
be in turn the _pachise_ of the Hindus, and the rectangular plan of
this game may sometimes be found on the rocks near the villages. There
is "cup and ball," a guessing game in which four cups cut from wood
and a stone about the size of a marble form the paraphernalia; and
there is a game in which reed dice with markings are thrown. A set of
these dice was found in an ancient ruin near Winslow, Arizona, and
they are represented on an ancient bowl from Sikyatki, a ruin near
Walpi.
With all these games the Hopi are not gamblers and appear to have the
same aversion to it as they have to fire-water, differing in this
respect from the Navaho, Zuñi, and many other tribes of Indians. Most
of their games, like those of the ancient Greeks, are full of the
exhilaration of life, the glow of physical training, the doing of
something to win the favor of the gods.
In this account the children must not be left out. Imitating the
customs of their seniors, they not only carry out the great games but
also enter with abandon the childish sports of chasing, tag, ring
around a rosy, ball, and other juveniles. Tops and popguns are not
unknown, and if a boy has a pebble shooter made of an agave stalk with
a spring of elastic wood he can go as far in mischief as ever Hopi
children do, but he never fires away peas or beans, for they are too
precious.
It may be well to recount here the endurance of the Hopi in their
great national accomplishment--that of making long runs at record
speed.
One morning about seven o'clock at Winslow, Arizona, a message was
brought to the hotel that an Indian wished to see the leader of an
exploring party. On stepping out on the street the Indian was found
sitting on the curbstone, mouth agape with wonder at the trains moving
about on the Santa Fé Pacific Railroad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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