EARLY WAGERING n 



am right in stating to be the first direct histori- 

 cal allusion to wagering on horse races. But 

 the medium current on racecourses in those days 

 was not coin. The odds apparently were laid 

 in "kitchen utensils" — as a lad with whom I 

 was at school once construed the line, to his 

 subsequent discomfiture — namely, cauldrons and 

 tripods. 



Such, at least, we are led to infer from the 

 paragraph in the twenty-third book of the " Iliad," 

 which, according to William Cowper's blank verse 

 translation, edited by Robert Southey, runs some- 

 what as follows : — 



" Come now — a tripod let us wager each, 

 Or cauldron, and let Agamemnon judge 

 Whose horses lead, that, losing, thou mayst learn. " 



Or more euphoniously, as Lord Derby has it : 



"Wilt thou a cauldron or a tripod stake 

 And Agamemnon, Atreus' son, appoint the umpire 

 To decide whose steeds are first ? " 



The cauldrons and tripods referred to were 

 of course of great value, and, as trophies, highly 

 prized by competitors in the races and other 

 competitions calling for a display of skill and 

 daring. 



There is another allusion in the " Iliad " to the 

 presentation of a tripod as a great reward for 

 valour. It occurs in the eighth book, and the 

 passage goes more or less like this : 



