450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
object, as already indicated, is mainly the promotion of the fertility 
of the fields; but it is also sometimes an effort to forecast the size of 
the harvest. It is likely, in fact, that the two motives were never 
clearly differentiated by the celebrants. 
There is, however, another form of ritual contest, in which the 
struggle is between two bulls. This type also occurs over an enor- 
mous area, in the main distinct from the former, although overlap- 
ping it slightly, and extending from Japan on the east to Madagascar 
on the west. Throughout this vast area, partly continental and 
partly oceanic, it appears to be an integra! factor, in present or past 
time, of the irrigated rice culture complex. 
In this type also the original idea seems to have been the promo- 
tion of fertility. But at present in those localities where'the rite 
survives most fully it is the second motive—that of divina- 
tion—which is predominant, the likelihood of good or bad harvests 
being judged according as one or other of the two bulls wins. Again 
the purpose may become merely that of providing amusement, either 
for court circles or for the people at large. Finally, the custom may 
degenerate into a purely commercial affair, where admission is 
charged, and where one of the principal motives is the opportunity 
afforded for gambling. 
In its full form, however, this type of ritual bullfight combines a 
number of definite and highly characteristic elements. First comes 
the selection and preparation and in some cases the training of the 
bull for the rite, which normally occurs in the spring. Just previous 
to the fight the animal’s pugnacity is aroused by forcing quantities 
of strong drink down his throat. Then comes the combat proper, 
at the end of which the victor is led in triumphal procession, to the 
accompaniment of chants and drums. He is then sacrificed to the 
guardian divinity of the crops, whose representative he is, by the 
local headman in his capacity of chief priest of the group, the killing 
here also being accomplished without the shedding of blood, either 
by clubbing to death or by driving a spike into the animal’s forehead. 
His flesh is then divided and eaten at a ceremonial communal ban- 
quet, at which it is typical for the worshippers to partake liberally 
of alcoholic beverages, the proceedings winding up in a glorified 
Donnybrook Fair, where swords, spears, and other lethal weapons 
take the place of the comparatively innocuous blackthorn. Finally, 
the slain animal’s horns are literally exalted, upon a tall pole set up 
in some public place, where they are treated as cult objects. The 
dullfight proper, it will thus be seen, forms only one element in the 
entire somewhat elaborate cult complex. It happens, however, to be 
that feature which, with perhaps the exception of the feastings and 
rarousing, tends to persist longer than any of the others. 
