POLO IN INDIA 267 



yards, or thereabouts, in length, by about sixty in breadth, covered 

 with a fine turf and surrounded by a low stone wall and rows of 

 poplars or linden trees. Two pillars of stone are let into the 

 ground at a short distance from either end, and the space between 

 them, about ten yards, is the goal or home of the players. It is, 

 in fact, hockey on horseback. The ball, which is larger than a 

 cricket ball, is only a globe made of a knot of willow wood, and is 

 called in Thibeti pulu. The stick, or byntu, is of the strong and 

 straight bough of the almond tree, about four feet in length, and 

 let in at the top and passed quite through to the end of a piece of 

 solid birch wood about the size and shape of a drenching horn. 

 The course is attended by numerous spectators, who remain upon 

 the wall and watch the game with the greatest interest. A carpet 

 was spread for the Rajah, and he invited me to sit beside him. 

 Meanwhile a boy was blindfolded, and the sticks of all the players, 

 whose number is unlimited but of course equal on both sides 

 were put into his hands, and from these he forms the sides by 

 placing one alternately on the right and left of him. The Gylfo's l 

 band is in attendance and plays whilst the game is going on. It 

 commences by one of the chief players perhaps a relation of the 

 Gylfo taking the ball in the left hand, and then, allowing the 

 reins to lie upon the back 2 of the horse, he starts off at speed, 

 tosses the ball into the air, and does not often fail to strike it, 

 sending it far and high towards the opposite side. Immediately it 

 falls a desperate melee takes place in order to hit it, and the 

 players, perhaps sixteen in number, are rarely at rest until the 

 game is finished. The exact rules I did not learn. 



The horses of Little Thibet are small and active, and their long, 

 uncombed manes and tails, together with the streaming black hair 

 of their riders and the loose, pendent ends of the Thibetan turban, 

 give to both horses and riders a most wild and picturesque 

 appearance. I can conceive that chaugdn requires only to be 

 seen to be played. It is the fit sport of an equestrian nation, and 

 would be, I should think, an excellent exercise for cavalry. 



After alluding to the agility that the riders display, and 

 to the fact that accidents do occur occasionally, Vigne con- 

 tinues : 



The game is played in almost every valley in Little Thibet and 

 the adjoining countries of Ladakh, Yessen, Chitral, &c., and I 



1 Rajah or prince. 2 Query : Neck ? 



