Popular Sportf and Exercises. 507 



iiny manner, however perilous, to the annoy- 

 ance or destruction of an adversary. Sticks, 

 stones and every dangerous kind of weapon, 

 are resorted to for the gratification of passion 

 or revenge. But the most common and savage 

 method of settiling quarrels upon the continent 

 is the Jldoption of the Pancratium. The 

 parties close, and struggle to throw each other 

 down ; at the same time the teeth and nails are 

 not unemployed. In short, they tear * each 

 other like wild beasts, and never desist from 

 the contlict till their strength is completely 

 exhausted; and thus regardless of any esta* 

 blished laws of honour which teach forbearance 

 to a prostrate foe, their cruelty is only termi- 

 nated by their inability to inflict more mischief. 

 And yet superficial observers, and especially all 

 foreigners who have written concerning our 

 customs and manners, loudly brand the English 



♦ In Virginia and Ihe ot^er southern states of Arae* 

 rica, the mo«t savage acts of barbarity are committed, in 

 the quarrels of the people. Couching — or thrusting out 

 the e)C from the socket, is one of the means resorted to 

 upon almost every personal dispute. An intelligent 

 traveller, Mr. Weld, declares, that at Richmond in 

 Virginia, it was nothing uncommon io meet with persons 

 deprived of one or both eyes from this horrid praciice.— 

 He mentions another mode to disable an antagonisf, *o 

 detestably barbarous, as to excite incredulity, if the ac- 

 count bad not been cprroboraled by other writers. 



