y now occupied by the United States. In
its passage from one tribe to another the game became modified into several
types, but the fundamental character was not changed, so that all these
types are, in a sense, a unit. The game is very old upon this land; the
articles used in playing it have been found in ancient graves, in the cliff
dwellings of the Southwest and in various ruins scattered over the country.

Among the Pueblo tribes the articles used in types of this game appear
among the paraphernalia on altars prepared for certain ceremonies. From a
study of these ceremonies in connection with the myths of the people it
seems probable that the hoop used in this game represents the shield of the
War God. When the hoop has a netting that fills the center and covers the
edges, the netting simulates the magic web of the Spider Woman, a person
that frequently figures in the myths and stories of different tribes. Her
web generally serves as a protection furnished by her in a conflict.

The netted hoop appears as a decoration upon the interior of pottery bowls
formerly made by the Indians of the Southwest. In some of these bowls the
netting is dotted with spots. Dr. Culin regards this particular design "as
representing the spider web with the dew upon it," and adds: "The 'water
shield' [of one of the Zuni War Gods], from which he shook the torrents,
was suggested, no doubt, by dew on the web." (Ibid., p.425.) To one
unfamiliar with the Indian's habit of mind it may seem strained to connect
the beads of dew on a spider's web with the torrential rain, but to one
familiar with native thought as expressed in myths where the Indian has
dramatized his conceptions of nature and of natural forces and phenomena,
the connection ceases to be strange.

On the Pueblo altars the netted shield is always associated with arrows,
bows or darts. In the various types of this game the arrows, darts, bows,
javelins and lances that are associated with the hoop are interchangeable,
some tribes using one and other tribes another. Under all the varied types
with their different forms as found among scattered and unrelated tribes
the game holds to its original significance, primarily religious in
character, being an appeal for the protection and the perpetuity of life.

Only two articles are required for this game, the hoop and the javelin. In
one type the hoop is covered with a netting more or less closely and
elaborately woven. In all the netted de