240 POLO 



difficult to say. 1 Some license, however, must be allowed to 

 the Oriental artist, whose composition of his picture is somewhat 

 quaint. The sticks seem in shape to greatly resemble those we 

 now use, though with longer handles \ and .the ' flowery mead ' 

 on which the game is taking place must have made the 'going ' 

 rather heavy from a polo point of view. Crude though the 

 drawing is, yet it gives a good idea of the game and the horses 

 used, for their small heads, tapering muzzles, rounded quarters 

 on which the tail is set on high, thick girth, and general'appear- 

 ance evidently denote their Eastern parentage. In the original 

 the whole' picture is profusely illuminated in gold and the 

 brightest of colours. 



The prowess of a certain Gushtasp (the Hystaspes of classical 

 history) is also extolled by Firdusi, who describes him as wield- 

 ing the chaugan, or stick, with such effect ' that the ball could 

 no longer be seen by any person on the meidan, or plain, as 

 his blow had caused it to vanish amongst the clouds.' 2 



Truly there must have been giants in those days ! 



This work is, of course, merely legendary, but points to the 

 early origin of the game, as Firdusi states that his information 

 had been derived from earlier works, traditions, and literary 

 fragments. Other Eastern writers of the ninth and tenth cen- 

 turies allude to the game as having been practised in very early 

 ages, and well known throughout the East. 3 



The historian Tabari, who lived about 914 A.D., relates how 

 the Persian king Dara, or Darius, who lived 525 B.C., wishing to 



1 In Munnipore when the Rajah plays, his spare-stick carriers are allowed 

 on the ground, but this is the prerogative of royalty alone. 



2 Le Livre des Rois. Par J. Mohl. 



3 Ancient, however, as the epic of Firdusi undoubtedly is, yet Pehlavi 

 writings, which are.much older, allude to the game, especially the old fragments 

 entitled ' Karnamak-i-Artakshir-i-Babakan," which record some of the wondrous 

 feats of the Sassanian kings, Ardashir, Shdpur, and Hormzad. These frag- 

 ments relate mainly to the sports in which the flower of Iranian chivalry were 

 trained, and excellence and pre-eminence in which made a proficient in them 

 a man of mark. Foremost amongst these was chiipaan (from which the more 

 modern term chavgdn was probably derived), described as a species of hockey 

 on horseback, played with a ball and a concave staff or racket. 



