Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/166

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CHAPTER X.


DODGING AND CHECKING.

Dodging—Is the art of carrying the ball past one or more checkers. It is the ostentation and glitter of the game; and though important, has been too often made a sort of saturnalia, where the dodger ran a gauntlet of merciless swipers, after the Indian fashion of the gauntlet for captives. Its absolute necessity is of rare recurrence, but common custom and young blood, has made it an indelible and prominent feature of Lacrosse. There is a madness in its most difficult feats, spiced with a smack of danger, that must always make it a tempting attraction. When you dodge to excess, you submit your anatomy to the possibility of cut and bruised fingers, and, like Lamb's convalescent, you are "your own sympathizer." The burnt child may dread fire, but did maiming ever give players a