POLO 



palm be moist and thy body perspire, then the medicines will 

 penetrate though thy palm and will permeate thy person. 

 When thou hast done with playing and thou feelest the effects 

 of the medicine, return to thy palace and make the ablution in 

 the Hammam bath and lay thee down to sleep, so shalt thou 

 become whole, and peace be with thee. 



' Thereupon King Yuan took the bat from the sage and 

 grasped it firmly, then mounting steed he drove the ball before 

 him and galloped after it till he reached it, when he struck it 

 well A^'ith all his might, his palm gripping the bat handle the 

 while, and he ceasing not mailing the ball till his hand waxed 

 moist and his skin perspiring, imbibed the medicine from the 

 wood.' 



' There is only one cure for all maladies sure ' : but the most 

 ardent may doubt whether leprosy would yield even to a course 

 of fox-hunting. Let that pass, however : King Yuan and his 

 malady, whatever it may have been, are faded into oblivion ; 

 the cure remains. That Sage Duban should have escaped 

 beatification for five-and-twenty centuries, alljcit his pre- 

 scription had been adopted by half the nations of the East ere 

 it was vouchsafed to our knowledge, is melancholy proof of 

 the ingratitude of mankind. 



The Chinese would seem to have taken kindly to the game, 

 when it was brought to their notice about 1400 years ago. 

 ' Polo,' says Mr. Herbert Giles, Professor of Chinese at 

 Cambridge,^ ' seems to have become known to them under 

 the T'ang Dynasty, or from about a.d. 600 onwards, when it 

 was at first considered by some writers ... to be a revival of 

 football, though it was no doubt quite a separate game, learnt, 

 most probably, by the Chinese from the Tartars. The earliest 

 mention of the game is by Shin Chiianch'i, a poet who died in 

 713.' More than one Chinese Emperor took part in the game. 

 Professor Giles quotes from a memorial presented to a reigning 

 sovereign of the tenth century, in which the following reason 

 among others is urged against the participation of royalty : 



' Xitteteentfi Caitury and After, March 1906. 



211 



