Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/156

136 with our larger netting, is far from practised to the perfection it might be.

Old custom, and the first laws, allowed touching the ball with the hand, to block or pat it on to the crosse, but in the excitement of the game it degenerated into deliberate catching. The result was that the new laws prohibited any touching of the ball with the hand during play, except when by goal-keeper inside the goal crease, or when it was taken out of a hole to face. The Indians, from the earliest times, were prohibited touching the ball with the hand; and in the village games at Caughnawaga and St. Regis, it is still considered unfair to touch it in any way, and a penalty of "facing" from the spot where the ball was touched is strictly enforced. That permission to touch with the hand developed some beautiful play cannot be doubted, but its tendency was to extremes, and to cause disputes, and its abolition became a necessity. Since the interdiction, catchers have paid more attention to real expertness in handling the crosse, and the art has become more finished.

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