14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tors in the lonor-distance match. The swift-footedness of Achilles is 

 mentioned as often as his name occurs in the " Iliad " ; and, according 

 to the Scandinavian Saga, the champions of Jutunheim distanced even 

 the henchman of Thor in a foot-race. Next to a smooth and perfectly 

 level lawn, a lirm beach is the best race-course, and, after a warm day, 

 it is a luxury to the martyred feet of a city boy to tread the cool sand 

 with his naked soles. Fast running is, on the whole, a more valuable 

 accomplishment than long walking, for no one knows when he may 

 owe his life, and more than his life, to the ability of outrunning a pur- 

 suer or a fugitive scoundrel ; but walking and trotting matches against 

 time will help to cure our children of that miserable snail-pace w^hich 

 has come to be the fashion of every public promenade. Reduced to a 

 funeral-march, the " regulation walk " loses half its value the hygienic 

 value of the only kind of out-door exercise which the children of the 

 upper ten or twenty can count upon. Who could wish a prettier sight 

 than a bevy of schoolgirls, flitting by with fluttering flounces, like 

 dancers keeping step to a merry tune ? If mothers knew all the charms 

 of animated beauty, they would not think it " more becoming " to turn 

 their children into tortoises. Nor would they fear that they would 

 *' run themselves into a consumption," if they knew what real running 

 means, and what the motive organs of a human being are capable of. 

 Mexico has ceased to be a terra incognita to Yankee tourists, and 

 most visitors to the upland cities will remember the army of huck- 

 sters and poulterers who every forenoon turn the main plaza into 

 an agricultural fair. If you will take a morning walk on one of the 

 sand-roads that diverge from the south gate of Puebla, you may see 

 those hucksters coming in at a trot, girls in their teens many of them, 

 and loaded with sacks and baskets ; and upon inquiry you will learn 

 that most of them come from the valley of Tehuacan, from a distance 

 of ten or twelve English miles. The zagal, or post-boy of a Spanish 

 mail-coach, carries nothing but a light whip, but he has not only to 

 keep pace with a team of galloping horses for hour after hour, but has 

 to run zigzag, adjusting a strap here, picking up a handkerchief there, 

 and frequently entertains the travelers with a series of hand-springs, 

 in order to earn an extra medio or two not to mention the Grecian 

 hemerodromes, who could distance a horse on the long run, and had 

 often to cross rivers and lakes on their bee-line routes. 



An excellent system of training was that of the old Turkish Je- 

 nidji-begs, or drill-masters of the Janizary cadets, who made young- 

 boys practice lance-throwing with a spear that exceeded the common 

 javelin both in size and weight "because, after they had become 

 proficient in the use of such a heavy implement, the army-spear would 

 be a mere feather in their hands." On the same principle the knee- 

 muscles may be strengthened by a simple manceuvre without the use 

 of any apparatus. Bend the left leg in a right angle, extending the 

 right leg horizontally, and lower the body till your right heel nearly 



