GAMES AND FESTIVALS.
The summary of the arts of pleasure is expressed in the phrase " to play." It is that alone which the human being does spontaneously and willingly and without ulterior motive. The philosopher Bain, in study ing the various manifestations of the will in man and other animals, found none that does not presuppose a " controlling motive " except the exercise of the muscles " for the fun of it," as in the gambols of lambs and the sports of children. To play, therefore, is the natural business of man, and would occupy alI his waking hours were he not driven by wants and appetites to work. What is it that makes " the solemn brood of care plod on " ? The hope that in time the period of recreation may arrive, the ardently-desired playtime.
The Roman have rarely given to this subject the attention it deserves. The pastimes of a people are eminently character istic of their mental disposition, and the amount of time they devote to play and to work is, it need scarcely be said, quite as decisive as to their destiny as any trait we could name. When the historian could write the following description of a people it would ask no prophetic power to fore tell its fate : "The Roman people considered the circus as their home, their temple, and the seat of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their places, and there were many who passed a sleepless and anxious night under the adjacent porticos. From the morning to the evening, careless of the sun or rain, the spectators, who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand, remained in eager attention, their eyes fixed on the horses and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear for the success of the colors which they espoused ; and the happiness of Rome appeared to depend on the event of a race " (Gibbon).
The Olympian Gamcs.—The games of the circus were those of blood and brutality, and by the unanimous testimony of the early Christian writers nothing in the economy of the great city worked more disastrously to corrupt its life and to prepare the way for the destruction of the mighty empire of which it was the heart. In contrast to these scenes of butchery let us depict the character of those games which the Greeks celebrated every four years for more than ten centuries in the sacred grounds of Olympia. No combats were allowed with any kind of weapon, but only wrestling, running, leaping, hurling the quoit, and competing in feats of dexterity and strength. No one could enter the lists whose lineage and whose character were not equally blameless, nor until he had taken a solemn oath to deal fairly with his opponent. No reward of base lucre was promised the victor, only the wreath from the sacred olive tree ; but that brought with it glory that would descend to and shed perennial lustre upon his posterity, his name would be inscribed among the heroes of Greece, and poets would vie in singing the praises of his prowess. When
the games were about to take place a month of truce was declared through out the land, and any armed invasion was declared a sacrilege. From the remotest shores of Greece and from the isles of the sea princes and people thronged to Elis—poets to declaim their verses, sculptors and painters to exhibit the products of their industry, philosophers to compare their solu tions of the universe. Who can estimate the influence for good which the Olympic games, conducted for more than a thousand years in this spirit, exercised on the mobile and receptive Grecian mind ? Mexican Game of Ball.—Such great national games were by no means confined to the Aryan race or to classical antiquity. We may change the scene to the empire of the Montezumas, and we encounter in all parts the favorite Ilachtli, a game of ball. Every town and city had its court with walls, nobles and populace were alike devoted to it, and in the excite ment of the contest the most reckless wagers were offered and accepted on the results. Men would bet their houses and lands, their children, their own liberty ; it is even said that more than once the emperor risked his royal power on the success of his favorite players (p1. 38, fig. 4).
The Passion of Gaming.—The passion of speculating on the unknown result here alluded to is one of the strangest and also one of the strongest in linman nature. With all our boasted civilization, it is only by the most stringent and universal laws that it can be prevented from working the most disastrous consequences on the whole fabric of modern society. The pleasure of the gambler cannot he explained by the desire of gain. Charles James Fox, himself a famous example of the class, well under stood that when lie said, " The next best thing to winning at cards is losing." The love of gambling is as strong in the breast of the savage as in that of the most persistent habitue of Parisian clubs. The Indian of the Plains will sit up all night over the sticks and pebbles which answer for his cards. The Mongolian coolie dreams of no higher delight than to risk his hard-earned wages on his favorite game. Cards and chess, invented thousands of years before the Christian era in far-off Hindo stan, had spread all over Europe long before any useful knowledge con tained in the lore of the Indian sages had reached their distant relatives on the shores of the Atlantic. Both were originally imitations of the conflict of armies in the field, but now have become so refined and so remote from this significance that few players think of it.
In these and in many other respects into which we have not space to go, the games, amusements, and festivals of nations merit the close attention of the ethnologist.