GYMNASTICS. 



ed ; leaping and foot-races are limited to 

 a, few wagt-rs ; pitching the quoit seldom 

 extends beyond the apprentice and the 

 labourer; throwing the javelin is entirely 

 discontinued ; wrestling, long a favourite 

 athletic exercise in England, belongs al- 

 most exclusively to the wanton school- 

 boy ; boxing, (thanks to our morals) to 

 the lowest wretches in society; the tour- 

 nament, evidently derived from the Lu- 

 dus Trojae, is nearly forgotten ; the cha- 

 riot race is in the same slate of disuse ; 

 and we have nothing which resembles the 

 military pyrhic; and even the faint simi- 

 larity of the games enumerated are sup- 

 ported by the caprice of a few individuals, 

 who are often condemned for employing 

 their time to so little purpose. 



On the other hand, if we turn our at- 

 tention to the rest of the world, we shall 

 find that many of the gymnastic sports are 

 in full use at this moment, without the in- 

 habitants suspecting that nations very re- 

 mote from them had similar some thou- 

 sand years past. Two instances of this 

 fact are so exactly in point, thai we can- 

 not refrain from giving them. Mr. Cor- 

 diner, who very lately presented the pub- 

 lic with an excellent work, descriptive of 

 the island of Ceylon, relates the particu- 

 lars of a Cingalese play, in the following 

 words : 



" Gay and noisy amusements do not of- 

 ten interrupt the predominant repose of 

 the genuine Celonese; but a sort of 

 comical representation is sometimes at- 

 tempted, to gratify a 1 man of elevated rank, 

 or to celebrate an occasion of extraordina- 

 ry festivity. On the 28th of December, 

 1803, while Lord Viscount Valentia was 

 visiting Governor North, at Columbo, a 

 numerous company of the British inhabi- 

 tants were favoured, after dinner, with 

 the sight of an exhibition, called by the 

 natives a Cingalese play, although, from 

 the rude nature of the performance, it can 

 hardly be ranked among the productions 

 of the dramatic art. The stage was the 

 green lawn before his Excellency's villa at 

 St. Sebastian, and the open theatre was 

 lighted with lamps supported on posts, 

 and flambeaus held in men's hands. The 

 entertainment commenced with the feats 

 of a set of active tumblers, whose naked 

 bodies were painted all over with white 

 crosses. They walked on their hands, and 

 threw themselves round, over head and 

 heels, three or four times successively, 

 without a pause. Two boys embracing one 

 another, with head opposed to feet, tum- 

 bled round like a wheel, but necessarily 

 with a slower motion, as a momentary 

 atop was required, when each person 



touched the ground. The young per- 

 formers, singly, twisted their bodies with 

 a quickness and flexibility which it would 

 be difficult to imitate in a less relaxing 

 climate. Some of the movements produ- 

 ced sensations by no means agreeable, as 

 they conveyed the idea of occasioning un- 

 easiness to the actors. After this, six or 

 seven professed dancers appeared on the 

 stage. They were dressed like the gay 

 damsels on the coast of Coromandel ; but 

 the greater part of them appeared not t 

 be females, and an inferiority of gesticu- 

 lation was visible in the style of their per- 

 formance. Two men, raised upon stilts, 

 walked in amongst them, exhibiting a 

 most gigantic stature ; pieces of bamboo 

 were tied round their legs, reaching only 

 a little above the knee, and elevating 

 them three feet from the ground ; they 

 moved slowly, without much ease, and 

 had nothing to support them but the 

 equipoise of their own bodies : a man 

 then appeared masked, armed with a 

 sword and switch, and habited in the old 

 Portuguese dress ; two others, resem- 

 bling Dutchmen, and masked, preceded, 

 who skipped about and drove all before 

 them in an imperative manner; groupes 

 of horrible masks, set with teeth, one of 

 which had the head and proboscis of an 

 elephant, followed; the persons who bore 

 them carried lighted torches in each 

 hand, those they whirled rapidly round, 

 alternately lighting and extinguishing 

 them in the course of their revolutions ; 

 these personified devils, and sometimes 

 laughed to excess, but said little ; imita- 

 tions of wild animals next appeared ; " but 

 the prettiest part of the entertainment 

 was a circular dance, by twelve children 

 about ten years of age ; they danced op- 

 posite to one another, two and two, all 

 curtsied at one time down to the ground, 

 shook their whole bodies with their hands 

 fixed in their sides, and kept time to the 

 music with two little clattering sticks, one 

 in each hand. Going swiftly round, being 

 neatly dressed, of one size, and perfect in 

 the performance, this youthful dance pro- 

 duced a very pleasing effect, and brought 

 to remembrance the pictures of the fleet- 

 ing hours." 



Captain Cook relates, in the second vo- 

 lume of the account of his voyage to the 

 Pacific Ocean and the Sandwich Islands, 

 that the natives play at bowls with pieces 

 of whetstone, in shape resembling a small 

 cheese, rounded at the edges, highly po- 

 lished, and weighing about a pound. 

 " They also use, in the manner that we 

 throw quoits, small, flat, round pieces of 

 the writing- slate, of the diameter of tk& 



