Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/24



In the early history of all countries we find their recreations to have been of a rude and barbarous nature. Such were those of Greece when Homer wrote; such were those of Britain when Cæsar landed; and such were the amusements of the North American Indians when first witnessed by the early French and English travellers.

The character of the game of Lacrosse, as originally played, made it midway between a sport and a deadly combat, because of its serious results to limb and life. It was a game which King James would, no doubt, have anathematized as being "meeter for laming than making able the users thereof;" and more emphatic would have been this edict had he played it; for not even the divinity that hedges kings would have saved his royal shins from many a sore and unceremonious whack.