﻿7ot PHEASANT.. 



In Sumatra they do not trim the Cocks * for this fport, as in Eng- 

 land, nor is the fame kind of artificial fpur (or gaffle, as it is 

 called) ufed, being flat, and (harp-edged, like a crooked lancet, or 

 rather like the blade of zjcimitar \, and proves a moft deftruc- 

 tive weapon. This is not confined to a particular part of the 

 leg, but is placed higher or lower, according to the weight or 

 fize of the birds matched againft each other, left one fhould fight 

 with advantage againft the other ; and it is affirmed that the 

 fport is carried to fo high a pitch at Sumatra, that inftances 

 have occurred of a father flaking his children or wife, and zfon his 

 mother audjijlers, on the iflue of a battle £. 



It fhould feem quite needlefs to defcant on the manners of our 

 common Cocks and Hens in England, as every good houfewife finds 

 herfelf equal to the tafk of raifing chickens under hens; but it is 

 perhaps not fo generally known that in the warm regions they 

 are hatched without their afliftance, by means of a properly 

 regulated heat. This is done in ovens, or rather heated chambers, 



other trained up for fighting: a fport which they are very fond of. Surely this 

 cannot be general ; at leaft it fhould feem not likely to be an amufement to 

 thofe who belive in the Metempfychojit. 



* Neither did the ancients. Two antique gems relating to this fport, con- 

 vince us of it, as may be feen in Archaol. vol. iii. pi. 9. Indeed Cocks in full 

 plumage appear on many gems, though not to the fame purport as in the two 

 above mentioned. — See Wilde's Gemm. Selecl. N" no. in. 143. — Auguft. Gemm. 

 N° 199. 202. 203. — alfo three kieroglyphical ones placed on the legs of Cocks, 

 taken from M. Angela's Gemm. Anticbe, in Gent. Mag. 1747. p. 388. 



+ Perhaps the weapon called a Razor by Fryer j who fays, that in the king. 

 dom of Vijiapour, in the Eaft Indies, they ufe cock-fighting with Cocks as big as 

 Turkies, whieh they arm with razors tied flat under their claws. — Fryer. Trail. 



P- l 75- 



J Hifi. Sumatr. p. 238.— Gent, Mag. 1770. p. 564. 



particularly 



