Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1894-12-28
SOME sAaeARlc- CUSTOMS.
Fighting with Deadly Whips Painful Tut.
tooing Kicking Matches.

Fighting with Deadly whips Painful TIT
tooIng Kicking Matches.
Among the Hadendowas, a Sudanesa
tribe whose name was painfully famil'
lar to us a few years ago, young men
who aspire to renown challenge one
another to dreadful contest. After
ceremonious cartel-whica may be de-
clined without infamy, however UNI
less the youth refusing have fought
once already and triumphed-public
notice is given, and at the time APP
pointed all the population of the vii
lage assemble. The champions are
stripped to the waist, and they carry
whip of hippopotamus hide four feet
long, one inch square at the base, with
edges newly trimmed, as sharp almost
as knife. At signal they exchange
blows methodically, and keep 1t up UNI
til one owns defeat, or, very much
more frequently, stumbles and falls
exhausted, but still defiant Blood
streams at the first cut, as though the
whip had been a sword almost, hut
they often hold out for half an hour
DR.. Gunther says he has seen scars
reaching to the very bone. The prize
of these contests is title, "Akhuel-
Benat"-Protector of the Maiden
which the victor bears until de-
feated or married. We can be-
lieve that the young men think it
worth fighting for, but it would be in
teresting to know what advantages the
title gives exactly, how the maidens re-
gard their protector, whether he holds
I'll al nd
SO forth.
A custom like this has spread, OF
course, among the neighboring tribes
under various forms. That of the
Abyssinian braves is described by Mr..
Mansfield Perkyns The girls them
selves play an active part there. Wneu
young people are gathered for amuse.
ment, after a church festival for in.
stance, one of them will begin peeling
a straw of green millet, which is full |
of pith. Her lovers blood runs cold |
probably but he must smile or own
himself a craven. When she has cut |
the pith into bits an inch long, he
stretches out his bare arm. The exam
pie set, every girl who respects herself |
and her lover follows it. The young |
men form circle with their arms eX-
tended. Blithely then, with many a
Jest doubtless, the maidens arrange
their bits of pith, upright, in some fam
,iful design, on the bare flesh, and set
them alight They are nearly an inch
thick, and they burn very slowly, but
the hapless youth must stand and smile
as we'll as he can until the blood and
luiceS of the scared flesh eXtinguish
them. 1t is in fact, peculiarly horri-
bic form of tattooing
If semi-romantic brutalities of this
sort ever prevailed IN Europe, we do
lot recall any evidence. The imagina-
ton of our forefathers did not carry
them beyond downright fighting in one
shape or another to prove their regard
'or the sex, barring individual exam
oles, of course. They have, indeed, a
curious practice in SardiHia-or had,
when Mr.. Tyndale visited that island
fifty years ago-but it does not seem to
have been connected with courtship.
This is the "Tirai de pei" The com.
batanJs take station opposite to one
another, with a second or hacker, on |
either side They put an arm round
the neck of each of these, or else clasp
their hands firmly, holding them up
with elbows bent at the level of the |
chin. Staining thus, supported Cd
either side, they proceed to kick az one
another, to twist one another's legs,
and to practice any maneuver which
would possibly bring the antagonist to
ground if the seconds did not hold him
up. 1t appears to be a peculiarly stupid
kind of game, but when two lusty
peasants kick at on1 another with all
their strength, though they be pro-
tected by special garter called
very ugly injuries must
follow. The fight proceeds until one
cannot come up to time, or until the
umpires declare that he would have
been kicked off his legs had he stood
Iona II ,ondou Standard