be called
fighting ... On these wrestling occasions the by-standers never
attempt to interfere in the contest. It sometimes happens that one of
the wrestlers is superior in strength to the other, and, if a woman be
the cause of the contest, the weaker is frequently unwilling to yield,
notwithstanding he is greatly overpowered. I observed that very few of
those people were dissatisfied with the wives which had fallen to
their lot, for, whenever any considerable number of them were in
company, scarcely a day passed without some overtures being made for
contests of this kind, and it was often very unpleasant to me to see
the object of the contest sitting in pensive silence watching her
fate, while her husband and his rival were contending for his prize. I
have, indeed, not only felt pity for those poor wretched victims, but
the utmost indignation, when I have seen them won, perhaps by a man
whom they mortally hated. On these occasions, their grief and
reluctance to follow their new lord has been so great, that the
business has often ended in the greatest brutality; for, in the
struggle, I have seen the poor girls stripped quite naked, and carried
by main force to their new lodgings. At other times it was pleasant
enough to see a fine girl led off the field from the husband she
disliked, with a tear in one eye, and a finger in the other; for
custom, or delicacy, if you please, has taught them to think it
necessary to whimper a little, let the change be ever so much to their
inclination."

(2) _Game of bones--gambling--games of chance._--p. 143.

Gaming seems to be a natural passion of man, and is carried to a great
excess among the American Indians. The games they play are various,
but all are for the acquisition of coveted wealth; they never play
without a stake, and that, considering the amount of their
possessions, a very heavy one. They are emphatically gamblers. I have
supposed that a description of their principal games may not be
uninteresting to the reader, and have therefore subjoined the
following:--

The game of the dish, which they call the _game of the little bones_,
is only played by two persons. Each has six or eight little bones,
which at first sight may be taken for apricot stones; they are of that
shape and bigness. They make them jump up by striking the ground or
the table with a round and hollow dish, which contains them, and which
they twirl round first. When they have no dish, they throw the bone