PECULIARITIES IN PAIRING. 103 



the circle, its antagonist was declared the victor; and 

 such quails as repeatedly won prizes in this manner 

 were sold for high sums*. 



The most common battles, however, of this sort 

 are between game-cocks, man having learnt to set 

 into action for his amusement the jealous rivalry of 

 these polygamous birds. " A lover of cock-fighting," 

 says Mr. Payne Knight, "would think it very strange 

 to be told that he condemned his own taste for so 

 heroic a diversion, by expressing a dislike to see cocks 

 killed in a poulterer's yard ; and the frequenters of 

 bull-baiting in England, or of bull-feasts in Spain, 

 would by no means allow that a butcher's slaughter- 

 house could afford them equal or similar amusement. 

 To render such spectacles interesting, there must be 

 a display of courage, vigour, and address ; for it is 

 by sympathizing with the energetic passions that the 

 spectators are amused or delighted ; and though the 

 energies of passive fortitude might have been dis- 

 played by the victims of superstition, as well as by 

 those of justice or injustice, they must, nevertheless, 

 have been very flat arid insipid, compared with those 

 which shone forth in the varied and animated con- 

 tests of the amphitheatre, where the contention was 

 equal, and life and honour the prize contended forf." 

 Marsden informs us, that in the island of Sumatra 

 the passion for cock-fighting is so great, that it is 

 rather a serious occupation among the inhabitants 

 than an amusement. A man in that country is 

 rarely met travelling without a cock under his arm ; 

 and sometimes there will be fifty persons in company 

 with their cocks. They often risk every thing upon 

 the event of a battle, even their wives and daughters; 

 and the loser is frequently stripped of his goods and 

 reduced to despair. We need not, however, be sur- 



* Julius Pollux, De Ludis, lib. ix. 

 t Principles of Taste, p. 33, 4th edit. 



