THE ANTIQUITY OF POLO 251 



In a quaint old book entitled ' The Adventures of the three 

 Sherleys,' written by one George Manwaring, and descriptive of 

 a voyage undertaken by Sir Anthony Sherley and his brothers 

 to the Court of Shah Abbas, King of Persia, in 1599, in order 

 to induce that monarch to unite with the Christian princes 

 against the Turks, the following description of the game is 

 given : 



After the banquet was ended the King requested Sir Anthony 

 to look through the window to behold their sports on horseback. 

 Before the house there was a very fair place, to the quantity of 

 some ten acres of ground, made very plain ; so the King went 

 down, and when he had taken his horse the drums and trumpets 

 sounded. There were twelve horsemen in all with the King ; so 

 they divided themselves, six on the one side and six on the other, 

 having in their hands long rods of wood about the bigness of a 

 man's finger, and at one end of the rods a piece of wood nailed on 

 like a hammer. After they were divided and turned face to face, 

 there came one in the middle, and threw a ball between both the 

 companies, and having goals made at either end of the plain, they 

 began their sport, striking the ball with their rods from one to the 

 other, in the fashion of our football play here in England ; and 

 ever when the King had gotten the ball before him the drums 

 and trumpets would play one alarum, and many times the King 

 would come to Sir Anthony at the window and ask him how he 

 did like the sport. 



In Barton and Drake's ' Unexplored Syria,' the following 

 note occurs regarding the Great Tamerlane : 



The civil name of this mighty devastator is the Amir Taymur, a 

 corruption of Dimur (Lord Iron). The Persian Shiahs, who hated 

 his orthodoxy, nicknamed him Taymur-i-lang, i.e. Limping Tay- 

 mur, whence our Tamerlane. He is called El Wahsh (the wild 

 beast) by the Damascans, because he rode his horse over the 

 corpses of their ancestors, whilst his people played at chaugdn, or 

 hockey, with the heads of the slain. 



A nice, lively occupation, but the balls (i.e. human heads) 

 must have been lather difficult to propel, and must have taxed 

 the power of Tamerlane's merry men to the utmost. 



