ar sport among the children is what they term the stick game. Again
willow rods are used without the bark, only this time they are cut short
enough to be rigid, and they drive them with great velocity up an inclined
board. When the stick leaves the board it speeds like an arrow far in the
distance. Every Indian boy and girl owns a pony, from which they are
almost inseparable, and which they ride with fearless abandon.

[An Indian Woman's Dress--Mrs. Wolf Plume]

An Indian Woman's Dress--Mrs. Wolf Plume

While men are off in search of game the women make bead work of a most
bewitching order, meanwhile watching the pappoose, fastened completely in
its wooden bead-covered cradle, only the head protruding. The cradle is
hung from a lodge pole or the bough of a tree, rattles and bells playing
in the breeze. Other women gather in the shade and play the game of plum
stone, a gambling game. They use the stones of the wild plum, which they
colour with fanciful devices, and toss them up in a wooden bowl.

[The Flower of the Wigwam]

The Flower of the Wigwam

The wooing of Indian lovers varies with the tribes. One pair of lovers
seal their vows by standing a little removed from the parental lodge, with
a blanket covering their heads. In another tribe the negotiations are
made entirely through the parents, when the transaction resolves itself
into a barter, so many ponies for a bride; while in still another tribe,
when a love fancy strikes a young man, he arranges to meet the young woman
who has attracted him as she goes to the river for water. They pass each
other in the path without any recognition. This occurs two or three
times. Finally if the young girl welcomes these attentions she looks
toward him as they pass. That night he comes to the lodge of her parents,
remains outside, beating a tomtom and singing the love song. The young
girl then goes out to meet him and they sit outside and talk. The next
morning the mother asks her daughter about the affair, and then the mother
invites the young man to come and dine with them and sit around the
campfire. Thus the courtship proceeds until he finally says, "I will take
this girl for my wife," and the two go to their own lodge. The Indian has
an unwritten code of family morals to which he most rigidly adheres. In
some tribes no Indian will cross the threshold of another if the wi