Ball games of various kinds were played and the Canadian game called _lacrosse_ is of Amerind origin. Parkman in his _Pontiac_ vividly describes one of these lacrosse games used in strategy to gain entrance to an English fort. “The plain in front was covered by the ball players. The game in which they were engaged, called _baggattaway_ by the Ojibwas, is still, as it always has been, a favourite with many Indian tribes. At either extremity of the ground, a tall post was planted, marking the stations of the rival parties. The object of each was to defend its own post and drive the ball to that of its adversary. Hundreds of lithe and agile figures were leaping and bounding upon the plain. Each was nearly naked, his loose black hair flying in the wind, and each bore in his hand a bat of a form peculiar to this game. At one moment the whole were crowded together, a dense throng of combatants all struggling for the ball; at the next they were scattered again, and running over the ground like hounds in full cry. Each, in his excitement, yelled and shouted at the height of his voice. Rushing and striking, tripping their adversaries, or hurling them to the ground, they pursued the animated contest amid the laughter and applause of the spectators.” [Illustration: CAT-SHAPED WHISTLE OF TERRA COTTA, CHIRIQUI] In Central America, a form of tennis was in vogue and stone courts where the game was played have been found and described by some of our modern archæologists. [Illustration: MANDAN GAME OF TCHUNGKEE George Catlin ] I never saw any ball playing amongst the Uinkarets, Shevwits, or other Amerinds of the northern Arizona-southern Nevada region. They all appeared to be deficient in games, at the time I was first among them, not knowing what our playing-cards were, and having even no games of exterior origin. There were flat pieces of cedar bark, painted with red stripes, said by some to have been used like dice, but I never saw them engaged in playing with them. The children used a flat piece of bark as a doll, and most Amerind children play with dolls made of wood, terra cotta, and other materials.[293] The small boys devote themselves to the bow and arrow for amusement in many tribes, and they will go out in the woods, or on the plain, and bring down small birds and mice with considerable skill. The whip-top, made of wood, is a favourite everywhere, especially among the Moki boys, whose life on the barren mesas precludes much hunting with bow and arrow. The children also beat the drum for fun.