<p>AN HISTORICAL RESEARCH<br />BY ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS</p> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong> <br /><br />LACROSSE<br />PLATTER OR DICE<br />STRAW OR INDIAN CARDS<br />CHUNKEE OR HOOP AND POLE<br />OTHER ATHLETIC GAMES<br />OTHER GAMES OF CHANCE<br />CONTESTS OF SKILL<br />OTHER AMUSEMENTS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN<br /><br />"There are," says Father Brebeuf in his account of what was worthy of note among the Hurons in 1636, [Footnote: Relations des Jesuites, Quebec, 1858, p. 113.] "three kinds of games particularly in vogue with this people; cross, platter, and straw. The first two are, they say, supreme for the health. Does not that excite our pity? Lo, a poor sick person, whose body is hot with fever, whose soul foresees the end of his days, and a miserable sorcerer orders for him as the only cooling remedy, a game of cross. Sometimes it is the invalid himself who may perhaps have dreamed that he will die unless the country engages in a game of cross for his health. Then, if he has ever so little credit, you will see those who can best play at cross arrayed, village against village, in a beautiful field, and to increase the excitement, they will wager with each other their beaver skins and their necklaces of porcelain beads." <br /><br />"Sometimes also one of their medicine men will say that the whole country is ill and that a game of cross is needed for its cure. It is not necessary to say more. The news incontinently spreads everywhere. The chiefs in each village