A DAY UP THE RIVER. 125 



were helping their wives or sweethearts to 

 scramble up the scarp, and to secure good 

 places for seeing ; while in the front the two 

 leaders, the plaintiff M'Manus and the de- 

 fendant Maguire, were waiting patiently till 

 the preliminary arrangements had been com- 

 pleted, and were standing, not a dozen yards 

 apart, each surrounded by some half-dozen 

 of his most trusty followers, to whom appa- 

 rently he was giving directions. It was a 

 regular judicial combat, and carried on, as 

 in mediaeval times, with Beauty the judge, 

 and perhaps the reward, of valour. 



By degrees the crowd had separated into 

 two groups, facing north and south, with 

 their leaders in the front ; and at a given 

 signal — with Whoo ! and Whoop ! and 

 Hooroosh ! — they rushed together. For 

 ten minutes all was noise and confusion, 

 and clattering of sticks, without much hurt 

 on either side. It is not in these melees 

 that deadly wounds are given or received : 

 the fighters are too much pressed together 

 to be able to give a fair downright stroke ; 

 so many sticks, too, are moving at once, that 

 it is hard if one does not catch the blow, 

 however well aimed. Now and then, per- 



