Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-27
The History Of Games.



AND HOCKEY AS OLD As THE PYRAMIDS.
Travellers, observing the likeness of chill
drcns games in Europe aud Asia, have some
times explained it on this wise-that the hu-
man mind being alike everywhere, the same
games are naturally found in different lands,
children taking to hockey, tops, stills, kites,
and so on, each Mt its proper season. But, if
so, why is it that in outlying barbarous coun-
tries one hardly finds game without finding
also that there is a civilized nation within
reach from whom it may have been learned
And, what is more, how is it that European
children knew nothing till few centuries
ago OF some Of their now most popular sports
For instance, they had no buttcdoor and
shuttlecock and never few kites till these
games came across from Asia, when they took
root at once and became uaturalized over
Europe. The origin Of kite-hying seems to
lie somewhere in southeast Asia, whore it is II
sport even of gruwn-up men, who fight their
kites by making them cut one nnother's
strings, and fly birds and monsters of the
most fantastic shapes and colors, especially
in China, whore old gentlemen may be seen
taking their evening stroll kite string in
hand, H5 though they were leading pet dogs
The English boys kite appears thus an in
stance, not Of spontaneous play instinct, but
Of the migration of an artificial game from a
the history Of civilization Within century,
Europeans becoming acquainted with South
Sea Islanders found them down to New Zea-
lnud adopts Mt flying kites, which they made
of leaves or bark cloth, and called manu-. or
bird, flying them in solemn form with ac-
compartment Of traditional chants II looks
as though the toy reached Polynesia through
the Malay region, thus belonging to that
drift Of Asiatic culture which is evident in
many other points of South Sea Island life.
The geography OF another Of our childish di-
versions may be noticed rs matching with
this. Mr.. Wallace relates that, being one wet
day in a Dyak house in Bornco, he thought
to aInuse the lads by taking piece OF string
to show them ''cnts-crudie," but to his sur
prise he found that they knew more about it
than he did going eff into figures that quite
puzzled him. Other Polynesians are skilled
in this nursery art, especially the Maoris of
New Zealand, who call it maui, from the
name of their national hero, by whom, nc
cording to their tradition. it was invented its
various patterns represent canoes. houses,
people, and even episodes i'll Maui's life, such
as lis fishing up New Zealand from the bot
torial history in cat's-cradle," and, whatever
their traditions may be worth, they stand
good to show that the game was of the time
of their forefathers, not lately picked up
from the Europeans. In the Sandwich Is
lands and New Zealand it is on record that
the natives were found playing q kind of
| drGughts which was not the European game
and which can hardly be accounted for but
as another result of the drift of Asiatic civili-
Zation down into the Pacific
Once started a game may last on almost
indefinitely. Among the childrens sports of
the present day are some which may be traced
back toward the limits of historical antiquity,
and, for all we know, may have been old
| then. Among the pictures of ancient Egypt
| ian games in the toInbs of Benz Hassan one
! shows player with his head down so that he
| cannot see what the others are doing with
their clinched fists above his back Here is
Here is obviously the game called in English
| hot cookies, in French HdjR-chdude, and bet
ter described by its mediuyal name of Qui
| TtFyP or who struck the blindinan hav-
ing to guess by whom he was hit or with
which hand. 1t was the Greek kOlldbisni0s.
or buffet game, and carries with it a tragical
association in those passages in the gospels
which show it turned TO mockery by the Ro-
man soldiers-"Aud when they had blind.
folded him.....thoy buffetod him.. saying
| Prophecy unto us, Christ, who is he that
smote thee Z" Luke xii 81 Matt. XVI ;G7
| Mark xiv SO.
Another of the Egyptian pictures plainly
represents the game we know by its Italian
name of m0rrd the Latin mjcdtiO, or flashing
of the fingers which has thus lasted on in
the Mediterranean districts over three thou.
sand years handed down through hundred
successive gru. rat.ous who did not improve
! it, for from the first il was perfect in its fit
| ting into one little niche in human nature
1t is the game OF guessing addition, the play
ers both Ht once throwing out fingers aud il
the same moment shouting their guesses al
the total. l asked myself the question wheth
or the ancient Aryans distinguished odd from
even, and curiousy enough found that an an
swer had been preserved by the unbrokeI
tradition not of Greek arithmeticans, but o.
boys at play.
Following up the cews that join the play
life Of the ancient and modern worlds, let Vi
now look at the ball-plny, which has alway,
held its place among sports. Thus the an
| cent Greeks, whose secret Of life was to do
even trivial things with artistic perfection
delighted in the game of Nausikaa, and oI
their vases is painted many a scene wher,
ball play dance and song unite in one grace
ful sport The ball-dance is now scarcely Il
be found but as an out-of- -the-wRy relic of ole
custom; yet it has left curious traces in Eu
ropean languages, where the ball dow Latil
balkI) has given its name to the dance it wen
with (Italian 5dlldre, 6dlIO, French ball. Eng
lish bald and even 10 the song that accom-
panied the dance Gtalian bdildtd, Frencl
5alIIde, English BALLAD.
The game known to us as polo has beeI
traced by Sir w. Ousely, in Persia, far bacl
in the Sassanian dynasty, and was at any rat
in vogue there before the eighth century.
was played with the ng-handled mallet call
ed chugdn, which Persian word came to sig
Nifty also the game played with it. This j
the instrument referred to in the "Thousant
| Niahtu - and arip 10
passages where it occurs is the legend told b.
the Persian historian of Darius insulting Al
exander by sending him n ball and MALE
(gui Ce chUgdH) as n hint that he was a bo
more fit to play polo than to go TO war. Whel
this tale finds its way to Scotland, in the re
nance of King Alisaunde, these unknown in
struments are replaced by whipping top
and Shakespeare has the story in the Englis
guise of newer period in the scene in Hen
ry Y."-"What treasure, uncle Tenni
balls. nv liege" We should not talk of pc
10 as being hockey on horseback" >" but ratE
er regard hockey as dismounted polo, an
class with it pall-mall, golf, and many anoth
er bat-and-ball game. Indeed, when on
comes to think of it, one sees that no site
being necessary for the old foot game of hur
ing none was used, but, as soon as the Pei
sian horsemen wanted to play ball on horse
back. IA proper instrument had to be invent
ed. This came to be used IN the foot gam
also, so that the Orientals are familiar bot
/ with the mounted and dismounted kind
The horseback game seems hardly TO hay
) taken hold in Europe till our own day, whe
the English brought it down from Munni,
p poor, and it has now under the name of pol
become a worldwide sport again. But tn
, foot game made its way early into Europe 6
| appears from a curious passage in Joinville
5 Life of st. Louis" " written at the end of I'll
thirteenth century. Having seen the gam
ON his crusade, and read about it in the BY
, zantine historians, he argues that the Greel
p must have borrowed their tzycdntSteriu
from the French, for It's, he says, gam
played in Languedoc by driving a boxwoo
bali with a long mallet aud called there on
cane. Metaphors taken from sports may thu
outlast their first sense, as when again pc,
: = pie say, Don't 6aRdy words with me, +" will
out an idea that they are using another met
= phor taken from the game of hockey, whic