circle, and make themselves masters of the child, 

 in which the victory consists. But this attempt 

 is by no means so easy as it may seem. The 

 defenders make almost incredible efibrts to keep 

 themselves closely united^ whence the besiegers 

 are often compelled, by this obstinate defence, to 

 relinquish the attempt through weariness. 



The pallccm, w hich the Spaniards call chueca, 

 resembles the orpasto or spheromachia . of the 

 Greeks, and the calcio of the Florentines. This 

 game has every appearance of a regular battle, 

 and is played with a wooden ball, called pali, on 

 a plain of about half a mile in length, the boun- 

 daries of which are marked with branches of 

 trees. The players, to the number of thirty, 

 furnished with sticks curved at the end, arrange 

 themselves in two files, disposed in such a manner 

 that each of them stands opposite to his adver- 

 sary ; when the judges appointed to preside at 

 the game give the signal, the two adversaries 

 who occupy the eighth station advance, and 

 with their sticks remove the ball from a hole in 

 the earth, when each endeavours to strike it to- 

 wards his party ; the others impel it forward or 

 backward, according to the favourable or un- 

 favourable course it is pursuing, that party ob- 

 taining the victory to whose limits it is driven. 

 From hepce proceeds a severe contest between 

 them, so that it sometimes happens that a single 

 match requires more than half a day to finish 



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