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INDIAN GAMES AND DANCES 63 |
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INDIAN GAMES
Introduction. — All the games here presented have been played in our land for untold generations, while traces of the articles used for them have been found in the oldest remains on this continent. According to Dr. Stewart Culin, the well-known authority on Indian and other games, "There is no evidence that these games were imported into America at any time either before or after the conquest. On the other hand they appear to be the direct and natural outgrowth of aboriginal institutions in America." Dr. Culin calls attention to the reference to games in the myths of the various tribes. Among those of the Pueblo people mention is made of the divine Twins who live in the east and the west, rule the day and the night, the Summer and the Winter, "Always contending they are the original patrons of play and their games are the games now played by men." (Bureau of American Ethnology, Vol. 24, p. 32.) It would lead too far afield to follow the interesting relation between ceremonials and games, a relation that is not peculiar to the culture found on the American Continent but which obtains the world around. The environment of man in general outline is much the same everywhere; the sun ever rises in the east and sets in the west; day and night always follow each other; the winds play gently or rend with force; the rains descend in showers or fall in floods; flowers and trees spring up, come to maturity and then die. Therefore, when man has questioned Nature as to the why and the wherefore of life, similar answers have come |
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