RITUAL BULLFIGHT—BISHOP 453 
out in the Pacific, almost due south of Tokyo Bay.'® Details are 
wanting; but the survival in these extremely interesting little is- 
lands of many culture elements which we know existed formerly 
in Japan proper, renders it likely that the local custom of bullfight- 
ing had a similar origin. It is only fair to say, however, that there 
is a rather vague and unsubstantiated legend to the effect that these 
islands were discovered and colonized from China direct, in the time 
of the great Ch’in Shih Hwangti, and the historical basis for this 
may not inconceivably lie in some actual intercourse overseas with 
the eastern coastlands of China; for modern research is rapidly dis- 
closing the vast amount of voyaging done by the maritime and 
insular peoples of eastern Asia even far back in prehistoric times. 
In Korea the practice survives to this day, and I was told when 
I saw it there in 1915 that the bulls represent different villages, which 
achieve honor or disgrace according as their respective champions 
are victorious or vanquished. Here, as might be anticipated in a 
country so long and so profoundly influenced by Buddhism, most of 
the characteristic ritual features have disappeared; but, as I saw 
myself, the victorious bull is still led in triumphal procession with 
chants and drum-beating. 
For the existence, now or formerly, of the ritual bullfight in 
northern China I have no evidence. This might perhaps be ex- 
pected, in view of the fact that the region lies to all intents and 
purposes outside the irrigated rice area. It is barely possible, how- 
ever, that a trace of the former occurrence of the custom is to be 
found in the existence in the Yellow River Valley 2,000 years ago 
of the popular sport of butting.. This consisted in the opponents 
donning the hides and horns of bullocks and then, mounted upon 
the shoulders of others, proceeding to knock time out of each other.17 
In the regions south and southeast of China the custom is quite 
general. It is found among the Talaings of southern Burma, by 
whom both bulls and buffaloes are employed for the purpose.'® 
The same was formerly true of Tenasserim, where buffaloes were 
utilized and where, just as among the Koreans and the aboriginal 
populations of southern China, the animals represented different 
villages.*? According to Colonel Gerini, the Malay State of Menang- 
#© Basil Hall Chamberlain, Vries Island, Past and Present, Transactions of the Asiatic 
Society of Japan, Vol. XI, 1883, p. 168; B. H. Chamberlain and W. B. Mason, A Hand- 
book for Travelers in Japan, London, 1913, p. 523. 
“H, A. Giles, “* The civilization of China,’’ Cambridge, 1911, pp. 153 et seq.; E. H. 
Parker, “On race struggles in Korea,’ Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. 
XVIII, 1890, p. 170; the Chinese expression is Ohio-ti hsi; for the reference, ef, Giles’ 
Dictionary, s. v. Chio (No, 2215). 
18 Max. and Bertha Ierrars, Burma, 3d ed., London, 1901, p. 179. 
1 Shway Yoe (Sir James George Scott), “‘The Burman: His life and notions,” London, 
1910, p. 382. 
