THE AGE OF GYMNASTICS. 133 



even to a full hundred pounds. This load was often carried at the rate 

 of four English miles an hour for twelve hours per diem, d&y after day; 

 and only in the burning deserts of Southern Syria the commander of 

 the Grecian auxiliaries thought it prudent to shorten the usual length 

 of a day's march by one-fourth. The gymnastic tests applied by the 

 systarchus, or recruiting-officer of a picked corps, would appear even 

 more preposterous to the uniformed exquisites of a modern "crack 

 regiment." Even tall and well-shaped men of the soundest constitu- 

 tion could not pass the preliminary examination unless they were able 

 to -jump their own height vertically, and thrice their own length hori- 

 zontally, and two-thirds of those distances in full armor; pitch a weight 

 equal to one-third of their own to a distance of twenty yards, and 

 throw a javelin with such dexterity that they would not miss a mark 

 of the size of a man's head more than four out of ten times at a dis- 

 tance of fifty yards, besides other tests referring to their expertness in 

 the use of the bow and the broadsword. 



Where the average physical standard was so far superior to our 

 own, it need not surprise us that the achievements of the national 

 champions surpassed the feats of our professional athletes in the same 

 proportion. Polydamus, the victor of the ninety-seventh Olympiad, 

 was able to fracture the skull of a steer with a single blow of his fist, 

 and tamed a wild horse by catching it by the hoofs of the hind-legs, 

 which he twisted inward till the joints of the fetlocks creaked when- 

 ever the animal attempted the least rebellious movement. Milo of 

 Crotona, the same athlete who carried a young bull around the race- 

 course, could not be moved from his position by a four-horse team, if 

 he planted his left foot on the level ground, and braced his right against 

 a slightly-projecting rock ; and once saved an assembly of Pythagorean 

 philosophers when the roof of a dilapidated temple threatened to fall, 

 by supporting the keystone of the porch with his uplifted arms till all 

 had escaped, after which he saved himself by two rapid leaps. A The- 

 ban gladiator, whose renown had reached the court of Persia, was 

 invited to Sardis, the summer resort of King Darius, and on the day 

 after his arrival entered the list against three picked men of the " Im- 

 mortal Band," as the Persian bodv-guard was called. A savage combat 

 followed, in which the three Persians began to lose ground, and would 

 have been driven beyond the lists if the fight had not been stopped by 

 command of the king. But his order came too late ; in the few minutes 

 which the contest had lasted the three " immortals " had received their 

 death-wounds. 



Deerfoot, a Cherokee Indian, who was brought to England in 1758, 

 was able to outrun the swiftest horses, if the length of the race-course 

 did not exceed two-thirds of a mile ; and during the administration of 

 Niccolo Marcello, the inhabitants of Ravenna witnessed the feats of a 

 young Savoyard, who repeatedly distanced the favorite racer of the 

 doge, and offered to run against any horse in the world and for any 



