[Illustration:The game of Lacrosse among the Menomini Indians (after W. J. Hoffmann, 1896). On the left, a "crosse," about a yard long]
Hertzberg shows how the Canadian Indians' game of lacrosse, which has become the national game of Canada, completely resembles in all essentials this peculiar Norse ball-game from Iceland. The game of lacrosse is, as Professor Y. Nielsen has pointed out [1905], more widely diffused among the Indian tribes of North America than Hertzberg was aware. Dr. William James Hoffman[35] has described it among the Menomini Indians in Wisconsin, the Ojibwa tribe in northern Minnesota, the Dakota Indians on the upper Missouri, and among the Chactas, Chickasaws and kindred tribes farther south. Hoffmann also mentions that opponents are picked and that the game is played in pairs [1896, i. p. 132]. Among the Ojibwas, he says, the player who is carrying the ball is often placed hors de combat by a blow on the arm or leg; serious injuries only occur when the stakes are high, or when there is enmity between some of the players. Among the more southern tribes, on the other hand, the game is much more violent, the crosse is longer, made of hickory, and it is often sought to disable the runner. This, then, is even more like the Icelandic game.
Hoffmann thinks that the game is undoubtedly derived from one of the eastern Algonkin tribes, possibly in the valley of the St. Lawrence. Thence it reached the Huron Iroquois, and later it spread farther south to the Cherokees, etc. In a similar way it was carried westwards and adopted by many tribes. This then points to its having originated in just those districts where one would have expected it to come from, if it was brought by the Norsemen, as Hertzberg thinks. That the game is so widely diffused in America and has become so much a part of the Indians' life, even of their religious life, shows that it is very ancient there, and this too supports Hertzberg's assumption that it is derived from the Norsemen. It is true that Eug. Beauvois[36] has pointed out the possibility of the game having been introduced into Canada by people from Normandy after the sixteenth century; but before such an objection could carry weight, it would have to be made probable that the characteristic Norse game was really played in Normandy; but this is not known. In support of Hertzberg's view it may also be adduced--a point that he himself has not noticed--that the Icelanders appear to have introduced the same ball-game to another American people with whom they came in touch, namely, the Eskimo of Greenland. Hans Egede [1741, p. 93] says: