Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/37

 20 top to toe, skipping and yelling round a fire, or talking at the top of their voices in a language of which I knew nothing, or laughing as merrily as if it were the best fun in the world to be cut to pieces. Not one of these lads uttered the slightest complaint during the operation; but when I watched their countenances closely, I observed that only two or three bore the discipline without shrinking or twisting their faces a little.

"I was told that these scarifications and bleedings render the men more limber and active, and bring them into proper condition to undergo the exertion of the ball-play on the following morning. I don't know how this may be with my friends the Creeks; but I suspect half a dozen of the cuts of which each of these young fellows received some hundreds, would have laid me up for a week!"'

On the next day and for hours previous to the appointed time for the match, a crowd of warriors, squaws and children assembled on the plain selected for the game, dressed in the gaudiest feathers and bead work, and squatted on the ground in little picturesque groups. One of the principal preliminaries was handing to the stake-holders the property