Introductory. 5 



Then, again, who but the sportsman is so 

 constantly tested and practised in the vital 

 art of making what in India is called a 

 bandobast, a plan for the day's operations, 

 involving the solution of goodness knows 

 how many problems of time and space, of 

 cheating the w4nd or the sun, of following 

 this, that, or the other road or beat or line 

 of country ? These are small matters, but 

 they hold the essence of the very biggest 

 matter that occupies mankind. War, the 

 apotheosis, or if you will the uttermost de- 

 gradation, of sport, considered from many 

 points of view is also the highest of human 

 sciences, for it deals with the very existence 

 of men, not only with their comfort or pro- 

 gress. At its stern apparition all ofher arts 

 fly in terror, and watch trembling from their 

 hiding-places the demeanour of the men on 

 whose skill or folly depends the duration of 

 their exile. A nation whose battles are 

 fought by blunderers may lose much more 

 than the lives of her soldiers. 



That a good sportsman has the makings 



