118 TEN YEAKS IN SWEDEN. 



a strap round the waist, so that there could be no flinching 

 from the cold steel, and the battle rarely ended until one or 

 other fell dead from his wounds. These barbarous practices 

 have, however, happily ceased in this land, and the best 

 memento we have of the savage custom is Malin's exquisite 

 statuette group in bronze, as large as life, of the two Swedish 

 " Bait spannare." This is now set up in the park opposite 

 the theatre at Gothenburg, and I never saw a more splendid 

 piece of statuary. The two struggling forms locked to- 

 gether in mortal conflict, the savage, determined expression 

 in the countenances of the two gladiators, to whom retreat is 

 impossible, and the distended muscles, are all so natural, that 

 one almost expects, while gazing on the statue, to see these 

 bronze figures start into life. I remember being in Gothen- 

 burg the day it was put up, and I of course stopped to look at 

 it. A few people were grouped around it, and among them 

 I observed a crew of " Bohus Land " fishermen. Every one 

 of them had his knife by his side, and when I watched their 

 stern, determined countenances, as they silently criticized 

 this statue, I felt pretty certain that the spirit of the old 

 " Bait spannare" had not died out, but that if a man unfor- 

 tunately came in collision with this crew, the case-knife at 

 their sides, would be their readiest weapon. 



By a singular coincidence, as I was coming back into the 

 town, I saw exposed in a shop window a picture of the fight 

 between Tom King and Jem Mace, which had lately come off 

 at Thames Haven, and as I pushed my way through the crowd 

 to have a look at it, I found the crew of an English ship stand- 

 ing admiring it. Now each of these men had his case-knife 

 by his side, but, nevertheless, I felt pretty certain that if by 

 chance I got into a row with one of these sailors, his knife 

 would never be drawn against my naked fist ; and although 

 I might happen to get a good licking, I should at least be 

 certain of a fair even-handed fight, and that, even if I had the 

 best of it, his mates would never interfere. And in the full 

 belief that this manly feeling is owing to the encouragement 

 of fair British boxing, I have always stood up for the British 

 prize-ring. 



