Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/206

186 a fond passion of his, the impulse for gaming, which overmasters it, must be something stronger and more goading. The playing-cards of the white men are greedily seized upon by such of the savages — and they are very many on the frontiers, in California and Oregon and in Washington Territory — as have caught the art of their use from seamen and miners. Nor is the Indian confined in playing with them to the distinctive games common to the white men. They serve him well through his own ingenuity within a large range for chance, though they would not probably in his own hands derive much service for calculation and skill. Doubtless he knows well how to turn them to account for “tricks that are dark.” His own methods and implements for gaming are to white men either trivial or uninteresting, though sometimes exciting. Sleight-of-hand, agility, velocity of movement, a quick eye, and supple muscles in manipulating the sticks or stones of his simple inventory serve his purpose. The working of intense excitement and passion, and the complete concentration of all his faculties in gaming show how absorbing is the occupation to himself. Feats of strength and agility, running, lifting, archery, pitching the quoit, and practising contortions, athletics, and difficult poises of the body give him a wide range for exercise with one or more companions.

Beyond these private methods for occupying idle hours or finding stimulus and excitement in the ordinary run of life, the natives fairly rival the civilized races in the number and variety of their jubilant, festive, and commemorative occasions, independently of those connected with warfare. There were and are general similarities in the occasions for merriment, games, and periodical festivals of commemoration, among the tribes all over the continent. But there are many such that are special and distinctive of single tribes or of a group of tribes. There is not much that is interesting or attractive for