The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-04
INDIAN GAMBLERS.
The More Primitive the feopie the
Greater Their Love for Games OF
Chance.

Chance.
From the Scientific American.
Gambling games of one kind or another
<orr, NOT inconsiderable part of the men
+a1 life of all savage peoples, who ind
in the yagaries of chance, aided more
or less by skill, the occasional eXhalta-
tion Of mind which all men demand in one
form or another.
Much has been written about games Of
chance with especial reference to their
origin. but this aspect of the case-the
mart which they play in the life of to-day
has been generally overlooked. Indians,
negroes, Cinnamon. have been hastily
classed as inVeterate gamblers, ana such
indeed from one point of view. they are
saws the Chicago News. But there Is
something more than this in the universal
nassion for play which characterizes all
the lower races without being by any
means confined to them.
The negro, whose whole soul seems alb
sorbed in the formula, Come seben," or
Come eleben" in his favorite game of
craps, IS yielding TO the same Impulse
which causes the Chinaman to spend all
his earnings in the never-ending, but to
him always fascinating mysteries of fan
tan" and which justifies the Mexican, in
his own mind for the loss of many hours
and a few, if not many, dollars in the
allurements of monte on the sunny side
of his adobe shack. The fondness Of
many business men for a quiet little
game" is an exhibition of the same desire
for mental excitement and change. dir
ferent, perhaps, in amount, but not in
kind from Nat which hold little band
of Indians around a blanket spread upon
the ground for days at time while the
chances of the game are making one man
rich and the others poor.
From this DOipt of view the gambling
games of the Indians have a certain value
aside from the picturesqueness which Is
nearly always an accompaniment. All
kinds Of games are to be found among
them, native as well as imported, and
while the latter are gradually supplantine
the former on account of greater convent
ence, and perhaps because of quicker ac-
ton, Inc strict aboriginal games are by
no mems eXtihct. They can stil be
found in full swing in many parts of the
| United States which are a little remote
from the usually travelled lines and but
litue changed by contact with our own
civilization
There is little doubt that in their origin
many If not all, of these games were
real religious ceremonies designed to fore
tell the future, but they also played the
same part in ancient times that they do
to-day in supplying a mental stimulus
Some of the games have come down prac-
tically unchanged in form, although now
Played under entirely different conditions
from what they were originally Among
them perhaps the most striking is the
game of mOccasin, which seems to be
unquestionably the forerunner of the "lit-
tie jokes" which every year proves so
effective at country fairs in Turing dollars
from the pockets of the unwary. This
game was once widely distributed among
the Indian tribes, and it has been said
that it is now extinct; but it can be seen
to-day In its aboriginal form in any of the
outlying parts of the Navajo reservation
In Arizona.
The paraphernalia OF the game are very
simple and always at hand. consisting
merely of a knife or other hard substance
"A pebble viii do-and the moccasins of
the players. The game is usually played at
night. although sometimes It extends over
several days, and in It's native setting has
welrdness ard fascination which the
modern fakir cannot claim Five persons
usually participate four of them actively,
while the nth acts as a musician. but