POLO 



4744 



POLYCRATES 



PO'LO, a ball game played on a grass-cov- 

 ered field by men on horseback. In its rules it 

 is very much like hockey (which see). Two 

 opposing teams, usually of four men each, en- 

 deavor to drive the ball through their oppo- 

 nents' goal posts. A regulation field is 900 feet 

 long and 450 feet wide; the posts, which are 

 made of light wood or papier mache, so that 

 they will break easily in case of collision, are 

 placed twenty-four feet apart, at opposite ends 

 of the field. The players use white wooden 

 balls three and one-fourth inches in diameter, 

 and cane or rattan mallets from fifty to fifty- 

 six inches in length. At one end of the mallet 

 is a cigar-shaped piece of hard wood; a light- 

 weight leather strap at the other end goes about 

 the wrist. 



In starting the game the men of each team 

 are stationed so as to defend their respective 

 goals, the first two men playing forward, the 

 third half back, and the fourth full back. The 

 game is divided into eight periods of seven and 

 one-half minutes each, three-minute intervals 

 between periods being allowed for changing 

 ponies. At the end of the fourth period a rest 

 of seven minutes is allowed. As polo is a fast 

 and exciting game, the ponies are driven very 

 hard, and can play but a short time without 

 resting. The expense of training and keeping 

 these animals makes the game a rich man's 

 pastime. 



In England and its colonies polo has long 

 been a high favorite among sports, and since 

 1876, when James Gordon Bennett introduced 

 it into the United States, it has been steadily 

 growing in favor with Americans. A series of 

 matches between representative English and 

 American teams for the American International 

 Challenge Cup has been attracting much inter- 

 est of late years. The first match, won by 

 England, was played at Newport in 1886. The 

 American "Meadow Brook Four" won the cup 

 in 1909, after the English had held it for 

 twenty-three years, and were victorious again 

 in 1911 and 1913. In 1914, however, an English 

 team regained the cup by winning two straight 

 matches. 



Water Polo is a similar game played by 

 swimmers, who use an air-filled ball that will 

 float in water. 



Consult Miller's Modern Polo; Drybrough's 

 Polo. 



POLO, MARCO (about 1250-1324), a medieval 

 traveler who lived in Venice, and whose jour- 

 neys in the East made him famous. He was 

 the son of Nicolo and the nephew of Maffeo 



Polo, whose trade ventures led them into long 

 journeys in the Orient. On one of these jour- 

 neys they reached Cathay (China) and were 

 cordially mvivrd at the court of the celebrated 

 Kublai Khan. Returning to Venice in 1269, 

 they set out again for Cathay two years later, 

 and this time took the young Marco with them. 

 The Mongol ruler received them with even 

 greater marks of favor, and appointed Marco 

 to various offices of importance, which made it 

 possible for him to become acquainted with 

 different parts of the realm. Indeed, so greatly 

 did Kublai appreciate the society of the Euro- 

 peans that he was loath to allow them to depart, 

 and only with great reluctance gave his consent 

 to their accompanying an embassy to Persia, 

 which set out in 1292. 



In 1295 the Polos reached Venice again, and 

 in the next year Marco took part in a war be- 

 tween his native city and Genoa, in the course 

 of which he was taken prisoner. During his 

 confinement he dictated in French to a fellow- 

 prisoner the story of his travels, which was pub- 

 lished as the Book oj Marco Polo. This cre- 

 ated a wide sensation, and for centuries was the 

 source of European knowledge about the Orient. 

 Most of its statements were looked upon as 

 fiction or exaggeration, but later explorations 

 showed Marco Polo to have possessed keen- 

 ness of observation and an accurate memory. 



Consult Yule's The Book of Sir Marco Polo. 



POLYBIUS, polib'ius (about 204-122 B.C.), 

 an eminent Greek historian. While still a 

 young man he held important political posi- 

 tions in his native city of Megalopolis, in Ar- 

 cadia, but after the conquest of Macedonia in 

 168 B.C. he was taken with other noble young 

 men to Rome as a hostage. There he became 

 intimately acquainted with Scipio Africanus the 

 Younger, and accompanied him on his expedi- 

 tions to Spain and Africa. Later he rendered 

 valuable service to his native country by help- 

 ing to procure favorable terms in a treaty be- 

 tween Rome and Greece. He is, however, 

 chiefly noted for his Histories; of his forty 

 books but five have come down to us. The 

 history as a whole treated of the growth of the 

 Roman empire from 266 to 146 B.C. Polybius 

 was the first historian to try to trace the causes 

 of events. 



POLYCRATES, polik'rateez, a tyrant of 

 Samos, who lived in the sixth century B.C. 

 He made himself ruler of Samos in 535 B.C., 

 compelled other islands to pay tribute to him 

 and conquered some of the provinces of Asia 



