Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1894-12-28
KINsvILLE KEN TUcKIAN, DEoEMBER q 1884
SOME aAReARIc CUSTOMS.



Fighting with Deadly whips Painful TIT.
tooing-Kicking Matches
Among thu Hadendowas, 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-which may be de-
.clined without infamy, however, UNI
less the youth refusing have fought
once already and triumphed-publio
notice Is given, and at the time APP
pointed all the population of the vii
lage assemble. The champions are
stripped to the waist, ana 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 a signal they exchange
blows methodically, and keep 1t up un-
til one owns defeat, or, very much
more frequently, stumbles and falls
exhausted, but still defiant Blood
streams at the first cut, as though tho
whip had been sword almost, but
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
any official position toward them, and
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. When |
young people are gathered for anuse'
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
proba bly,, 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 ez-
tended. Blithely then, with many
Jest doubtless, the maidens arrange
their bits of pith, upright, in some fam
ciful 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
juice5 of the scared flesh extinguish
them. 1t is in fact, a peculiarly horri-
BILE form of tattooing.
If semi-romantic brutalities of this
sort ever prevailed IN Europe, we do
not recall anC evidence. The imagina-
ton of our forefathers did not carry
them beyond downright fighting in one
shape or another to prove their regard
for the sex, barring individual exam.
pies, of course. They have, indeed,
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.
batanUs take station opposite to one
another, with a second or hacker, on
either side They put an arm round
ne neck OI 6iCu Oh JueSG, VI 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
mp. 1t appears to be a peculiarly stupid
kind of game, but when two lusty
kick at one 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
aloDa II ,Ond00 STANDARD