watching them play a hard-fought game of lacrosse
that required fleetness of foot and straightness of limb.
An eye-witness who sat with Brant at one of these games
has told of the excitement which the match aroused. On
this occasion a great company of Senecas had come all
the way from New York state in order to compete for the
mastery with their kinsmen, the Mohawks. The contest
lasted for three days before the Senecas finally won the
valuable stakes which were offered as the prize.

The field which was cleared for the game was fairly
extensive, the goals being placed about five hundred feet
apart. The teams had sixty men a side. When any one
dropped out from either party another was supposed to
take his place, and so the energies of the contestants
did not flag. The netted rackets employed in the game of
lacrosse were three and a half feet in length, straight
at the handle but curved at the other end. The broad
portion used for throwing or carrying the ball was formed
of thongs of deerskin, interwoven and drawn firm and
tight. It was a picturesque sight when the opposing teams
were ready to commence play. The animated warriors were
nude except for a breech-cloth reaching to the knee. When
all was in readiness, an Indian maiden came tripping into
the centre of the field. She was prettily attired after
the custom of her tribe, wore bracelets of silver and a
red tiara decked with eagle feathers. Placing the ball
among the players, she hurried from the field of play.
Two experts from the rival parties then raised the ball
between their rackets and strove to make the first
successful throw. The great game had now begun, and each
time the ball went through a goal it counted one tally.
The score-keepers, who were chosen from the older sachems
of the tribes, were invested with peculiar powers. If
one team was making far less tallies than its opponent,
they could diminish its rival's score (without the players'
knowledge, however) in order that the contest might be
protracted. Games of this vigorous kind have made the
athletes of the Six Nations noted in both Canada and the
United States down to the present day.

CHAPTER XV

THE PINE-TREE TOTTERS

It came to pass before long that the Indians wished to
dispose of some of the land granted to them on Grand
River. The United Empire Loyalists and others, lured by
the prospect of cheap land, kept crossing into Canada
from the United States; accessions to the populat