Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/8

 PREFACE. rifle or the cricket bat. We may wish for the hereditary sagacity of the Indian, who plays mainly by instinct; as poor Tom, in the " Mill on the Floss," envied the people who once were on the earth, fortunate in knowing Latin without having learnt it through the Eton grammar; but the Indian never can play as scientifically as the best white players, and it is a lamentable fact, that Lacrosse, and the wind for running, which comes as natural to the red-skin as his dialect, has to be gained on the part of the pale-face, by a gradual course of practice and training. All Indians are not good players, but I never yet knew one without an aptitude for the game; and it is surprising to witness the expertness of the juveniles, not yet in their teens, in the villages of Caughnawaga, St. Regis, Oka, and Onondaga.

I have not attempted, in this work, to exhaust the practical feats of Lacrosse, though I have given all the various methods of throwing, checking, &c., in use among Clubs, as well as some original feats, and others derived from the Indians, never introduced