New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-06-07
BTFF4LO RACING.


The accompanying photograph illustrates
form of sport that has been followed for thou
sands Of years In part of the district OF South
Canara in the Presidency of Madras. The bur
faIo race is a kind of harvest festival, and
every year, after the first crop is harvested, In
October November and December, the big land
.wners have race meetings, at which perhaps
Rfty to one hundred pairs of buffaloes compete.
AS soon as the first rice crop is cut the second
Is put down. and the kambla field is usually the
last to be planted with second crop. This is done
the day after the races, and some men give the
crop of this field to their farmhands as kind
of yearly present. The race is run over one nun
dred and fifty yards or so in mud and water In
a field ploughed and ready for rice seedlings
The game is to drive fast and straight and not
tumble off and mai as big splash as possible.
There are no judges no betting and no win
ming except by popular reclamation. Sometimes
a kind of gallo.s eighteen feet high, is put
across the course, and if any driver sends his
splash to touch or top that you hear roar of
applause from the whole five thousand people;
otherwise there is no winning, and each Compel
itor's friends go home in ace, saying their man
did well or i'll as the case may be.
When a wet field has been ploughed in India
It is usual to level it by driving over it board
perhaps six to eight feet long and a foot broad.
On this one or two men will stand. and pair
Of buffaloes Will pull it through the mud, where
It is a very effective lcveller. Sometimes you
will see two boys at this work, racing for the
fun of the thing. From such casual racing, per-
haps thousands of years ago, originated the buff
falo The leveng board is cut down for
the race Of to-day from eight feet long to one
foot SQUARE or less, pedestal six eight inches
high is put in it, and this the rider stands,
one foot on the pedestal and one on the pole
that joins ii to the yoke. He holds the tail of
buffalo in one hand and whip in the other; he
wears the minimum of racing kit, he drives a
pair Of buffaloes kept for racing only, and
worth perhaps $50 rupees that require ten men
to hold them before the start. He drives them
without reins. with nothing but waggling tail
to hold on to and steer by, and at the word
go the ten men let go and jump clear, if pos
sible. ana the bu1raoes go off at a gallop in the
mud and water. Sometimes attendant does
not get clear, and l have seen two
riei do~n the clingng for their lives
to the yokes over the beasts necks Sometimes
the buffaoes bolt and scatter the crowd and
spill the and get away into the young rice.
But If they run straight the raises his
whip. OPENS his mouth shouts for all he is
worth and comes down the course nearly twenty
miles ar hour cleaning like a bronze statue in
the centre OF great fanike splash OF brown
mud and water, OF which small quantity goes
down his throat AT the end Of the course he
Jumps off with q parting smack at his buffaloes,
which run up the slope off the field and stop of
themselves in what one may call the paddock
there To be wiped down. rested and taken back
to run again Illustrated London News.