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National Geographic : 1919 Aug
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THE GEOGRAPHY OF GAMES Photograph from Mabel D. Merrill PERSIAN WRESTLERS From the Nilesian country, where tombs bear pictures of ancient wrestling, this patriarch of sports spread to many lands, and varies in its style and rules from the jiu-jitsu of Japan to the "catch-as-catch-can" mode, as reported by that veteran sporting writer, Homer, when he wrote, "He lifts Ulysses, who, having now recourse to his extraordinary skill, kicks Ajax in the hamstring and makes him bend the knee. Ajax falls upon his back, dragging with him his adversary." dates back to remote antiquity. Prob ably the French were the pioneers in turf sport as practiced in modern times, but it was natural that the English, with their love of outdoors and of animals, should have cultivated the horse for the race as they did the dog for the hunt. James I seems to have been the first royal patron of racing and Queen Anne further encouraged it. Even the austere Cromwell could not part with his brood mares. One of them was concealed in a vault by the court master of the stud at the time of the Restoration, when diligent search was made to confiscate the Protector's per sonal property. Thus the animal became known in tradition and picture as the "coffin mare." Boxing and wrestling are the more humanized forms of individual contests of strength. Naturally the programs of the Olympic games, veritable encyclope- dias of ancient sports, included boxing and wrestling. Moreover the Greeks had one game, the pancrace, which combined both. Wrestling, at least, is much older than Greece, as indicated by the bouts pic tured on tombs along the Nile. In Greece, boxing fell into disfavor in Sparta for an unusual reason. The Greeks had developed sportsmanlike rules for the game, eliminating kicking, biting, and ear-pulling, and the bout closed when one boxer admitted his defeat. Lycur gus held it improper for any Spartan to acknowledge defeat, even in a game! The Japanese have been devoted to both sports for ages. Sukune, Hacken schmidt of Nippon, in the days when John was foretelling the coming of Christ, was deified, and from wrestling jiu-jitsu evolved. Boxing today is ex tremely popular throughout the empire. Jack Broughton, English "father of 125
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