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Show ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LXIX of society they are rooted in divination or the universal longing of mankind to know the causes of things and how effects may be controlled. In savagery men play for effects and control the causes, as they suppose, by necromantic figures which they carve or paint upon the pieces of the game. Thus, they try to win by sorcery. In later stages of culture the sorcery to a greater or less extent is abandoned and skill is recognized as the true cause, but there yet remains an element of chance. With primal man chance and sorcery are the elements of all games, while with civilized man chance and skill are its elements. There is a secondary though potent motive in games which inheres in tlie desire to take advantage for individual profit. For this reason gaining is as universal among tribal men as gambling, and it is common among civilized men. I have witnessed these games of sorcery among the aboriginal tribes of North America, and have seen groups of men or women wager their ornaments and all their personal goods, even to their articles of clothing, until their bodies were nude. As the game proceeds, the villagers gather about and comment on the incidents of the game, and recommend a variety of necromantic feats, which they suppose will bring luck to their friends. Sometimes the play does not stop for refreshment or sleep until one or the other of the parties have lost all, yet will the play proceed with hilarity and end with a feast and a revelry of intoxication. I have heard that civilized men gamble with the same assiduity. Hunting and fishing are primeval industries, by which wild-wood men obtain no small portion of their food. To some extent, in civilized society, they still remain as industries. In fact, fishing is yet a fundamental industry. But hunting and fishing are now games, and the fruit of the play is called game. Although these activities are often called sports, in science we must call them games, as for success they depend on elements of chance and skill, and the real gamester or sportsman looks with some degree of contempt on the man who hunts or fishes for food. |