The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

THE JAPANESE IDEA OF WKESTLTNG. 231
looked more like a pair of tigers than Imman beings, and for a moment I
thought it was not at all unlike M'liat a bull-fight in Spain might be.
" There they stood glaring, as I told you, and making a noise like
animals about to fight. Tliey stamped on the ground and made two or
three rushes at each other, and then fell back to watch for a better chance.
They kept this up a minute or so, and then darted in and clinched ; and
then 3'ou could see their great
muscles swell, and realize that
they were as strong as they were
fat.
" They did not try to throw
each other, as we do when we
wrestle, but they tried to pnsh
from one side of the ring to the
other. I couldn't understand this
until the Doctor told me that it is
not necessary for one of the men
to be thrown. All that is to be
done is for one of them to push
THE CLINCH.
the other outside the ring; and even if he only gets one foot ont, the game
is up. Only once during all we saw of the match did anybody get thrown
down, as we should expect to see him in a wrestling match in America.
And when he did get fairly on the ground, it was not very easy for him
to rise, which is probably the reason why the rules of the Japanese ring
are so different from ours.
"They had sevei-al matches of this kind with the two men standing
up facing each other before tliey clinched ; and then they tried another
plan. One man took his place in the ring, and braced himself as though
he were trying to stop a locomotive. When he was ready a signal was
given, and another man came out full tilt against him. They butted their
heads together like two rams, and tried to hit each other in the breast.
In a short time they were covered with blood, and looked very badly ; but
the Doctor says they were not hurt so much as they seemed to be. They
kept this up for nearly a quarter of an hour, and took turns at the busi-
ness—one of them being bull for the other to play railway train against.
It was as bad for one as for the other; and if I had my choice which char-
acter to play, I wonldn't play either.
"After the wrestling was over they had some fencing, which I liked
much better, as there was more skill to it and less brutality. The fencers
were announced in the same way as tlie other performers had been. They