daily supply, and who are not provident enough to lay up a store of provisions for winter. Indians in general are extremely indolent, from the wildest to the most civilized, and value themselves upon being so; conceiving it beneath the dignity of a warrior to labour, and that all domestic cares and concerns are the province of women alone. This aversion for labour does not arise from dread, or dislike of fatigue; on the contrary, no people encounter or endure it with more chearfulness, particularly in their amusements, which are of various kinds, and many of them [52] violent and laborious. They are calculated to make them athletic, and at the same time by the profuse perspiration which they occasion, they render the joints supple, and enable them to hunt with more facility.
Playing at ball, which is a favourite game, is very fatiguing. The ball is about the size of a cricket ball, made of deer skin, and stuffed with hair; this is driven forwards and backwards with short sticks, about two feet long, and broad at the end like a bat, worked like a racket, but with larger interstices: by this the ball is impelled, and from the elasticity of the racket, which is composed of deers' sinews, is thrown to a great distance: the game is played by two parties, and the contest lies in intercepting each other, and striking the ball into a goal, at the distance of about four hundred yards, at the extremity of which are placed two high poles, about the width of a wicket from each other; the victory consists in driving the ball between the poles. The Indians play with great good humour, and even when one of them happens, in the heat of the game, to strike another with his stick, it is not resented. But these accidents are cau-
