GYMNASTICS. 
hailed with loud plaudits, proportioned to 
the surprise excited by his uncommon 
strength of muscles. 
The pedestrian races admitted of more 
ardent endeavours than leaping ; not a mo- 
ment could be lost or granted for relaxa- 
tion ; the shouts of the teachers, and of the 
spectators, were incentives for exertion, 
and, divested of clothing, the efforts of the 
least successful were wonderful. Homer 
illustrates this part of the subject in his in- 
imitable “ Iliad.” 
“ Rang’d in a line the ready racers stand ; 
Pelides points the barrier with his hand ; 
All start at once ; Oileus led the race ; 
The next, Ulysses, measuring pace with 
pace; 
Behind him, diligently close, he sped, 
As closely following as the running thread 
The spindle follows, and displays the 
charms 
Of the fair spinster’s breast, and moving 
arms : > 
Graceful in motion thus, Iris foe he plies, 
And treads each footstep ere the dust 
can rise : , 
His glowing breath upon his shoulders 
plays ; 
The admiring Greeks loud acclamations 
raise ; 
To him they give their wishes, hearts, 
and eyes, 
And send their souls before him as he 
flies.” 
Iliad, book xxiii. 885, 895. 
Rapidity* 6f motion might be useful to 
the ancient's in many particulars, though 
less so than to the uncivilized nations gene- 
rally termed savage ; the inhabitants of the 
latter seem indeed compelled to acquire 
swiftness in running, as the pursuit of wild 
animals is absolutely necessary to maintain 
their existence; and some of the native 
chiefs of India and its dependencies retain 
persons to convey dispatches from station 
to station by pedestrian exertion. 
Throwing the dart or spear, was of de- 
cided importance in ancient warfare, and 
flie skill of their soldiers was probably very 
great. In this instance, however, it may 
be doubted, whether all the advantages of 
their gymnasiums enabled them to excel 
some of the tribes of Hottentots, exclusive 
of savages in a superior state of civilization ; 
the debased people alluded to, possess won- 
derful ability in throwing and arresting the 
progress of spears ; the writer of tire pre- 
sent article had an opportunity of knowing; 
from a witness of the scene, that a Hotterf* 
tot frequently caught a heavy pole hurled 
at him by a strong man, ere it had power 
to injure him. 
Throwing the discus, now known by the 
name of the quoit, required equal strength 
and skill ; the shape of the discus was nearly 
oval, about a foot in length, and three or 
four inches thick in the centre, whence it 
tapered on each side to the extremity, in 
the manner of a lens, and a hole was perfo- 
rated in the middle. Statues of persons 
employed at this game exhibit them with 
the discus “ rested on the four fingers, 
which were closed, with their ends point- 
ing upward on the inside of it ; the thumb 
was extended horizontally along the out- 
side.” 
Salzmann says, the thrower obtained the 
necessary impulse by swinging the arm, and 
at the proper moment he gave the discus 
a rotatory motion, and sCnt it through the 
air to the mark. Rennet asserts, in describ- 
ing the Roman Circensian shows, that they 
obtained their quinquertium, or the five 
exercises of running, wrestling, leaping, 
throwing, and boxing, from the Grecian 
games, and adds, that the discus or quoit 
of the former people, “ was made of stone, 
iron, or copper, five or six fingers broad, 
and more than a foot long, inclining to an 
oval five ; they sent this to a vast distance, 
by the help of a leathern thong tied round 
the person’s hand that threw.” The latter 
particular has been disputed, and the posi- 
tion is maintained by observing, that had a 
thong been used, it was unnecessary for the 
discobuli to rub their hands on the earth, 
to prevent the discus from slipping; be- 
sides, the strap would have interrupted the 
rotatory whirl thought indispensable for its 
steady course. 
If we may depend upon Homer, the 
weight of the discus was an object of some 
importance : 
“ Then hurl’d the hero, thund’rlng on the 
ground 
A mass of iron, (an enormous round) , 
Whose Weight and size the circling Greeks 
admire. 
Rude from the furnace, and but shap'd 
by fire. 
This mighty quoit Aetion wont to rear, 
And from bis whirling arm dismiss in air : 
The giant by Achilles slain, he stow’d 
Among his spoils this memorable load. 
For this he bids those nervous artists vie, 
That teach the disc to sound along the 
sky.” Book xxiii. 975. 
