those of the ancient dwellers in eastern Europe, found an unusual
quantity of material bearing on this particular topic, which he has
reproduced in his book. Charlevoix [Footnote: Vol. III, pp. 260-1.], in
a letter dated June 8, 1721, says, "As I was returning through a
quarter of the Huron village, I perceived a number of these Indians,
who seemed much heated at play. I approached them and found that the
game they were playing at was what they called the game of platter.
This is the game to which the Indians are addicted above all others.
They sometimes lose their rest and in some degree their very senses at
it. They stake all they are worth, and several of them have been known
to continue at it till they have stript themselves stark naked and lost
all their movables in their cabin. Some have been known to stake their
liberty for a certain time. This circumstance proves beyond all doubt
how passionately fond they are of it, there being no people in the
world more jealous of their liberty than our Indians."

In the description which Charlevoix then gives, he is relied partly
upon personal observations and also to some extent, upon accounts which
were at that time in manuscript in Quebec mid which were easily
accessible to him. He was himself an intelligent observer and a
cultivated man. His history and his letters, although not free from the
looseness of expression which pervades contemporaneous accounts show on
the whole the discipline of an educated mind. We learn from him and
from the authorities heretofore enumerated that two players only from
each side could participate in this game at any given time during its
progress. The necessary implements were a bowl and a number of dice
fashioned somewhat like apricot seeds, and colored differently upon the
upper and lower sides. Generally, one side was white and the other
black. The number of these dice was generally six. There was no fixed
rule as to the materials of which they were made; sometimes they were