GYM 
England, belongs almost exclusively to the 
wanton school-boy ; boxing, (thanks to onr 
morals) to the lowest wretches in society ; 
the tournament, evidently derived from the 
Ludus Troj®, is nearly forgotten ; the cha- 
riot race is in the same state of disuse ; and 
we have nothing which resembles the mili- 
tary pyrhic ; and even the faint similarity 
of the games enumerated are supported 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 atten- 
tion to the rest of the world, we shall find 
that many of the gymnastic sports are in 
full use at this moment, without the inhabi- 
tants suspecting that nations very remote 
from them had similar some thousand years 
past. Two instances of this fact are so ex- 
actly in point, that we cannot refrain from 
giving them. Mr. Cordiner, who very 
lately presented the public with an excel- 
lent work, descriptive of the island of Cey- 
lon, relates the particulars of a Cingalese 
play, in the following words : 
<l Gay and noisy amusements do not 
often interrupt the predominant repose of 
the genuine Ceylonese ; but a sort of comi- 
cal representation is sometimes attempted, 
to gratify a man of elevated rank, or to 
celebrate an occasion of extraordinary fes- 
tivity. On the 28th of December, 1803, 
while Lord Viscount Valentia was visiting 
Governor North, at Columbo, a numerous 
company of the British inhabitants were 
favoured, after dinner, with the sight of an 
exhibition, called by the natives a Cynga- 
lese 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 sup- 
ported on posts, and flambeaus held in 
men’s hands. The entertainment com- 
menced 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 op- 
posed to feet, tumbled round like a wheel, 
but necessarily wtyh a slower motion, as a 
momentary stop was required when each 
person touched the ground. The young 
performers, singly, twisted their bodies 
with a quickness and flexibility which it 
yvsuld be difficult to imitate in a less relax- 
GYM 
ing climate. Some of the movements pro- 
duced 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 to be females, and 
an inferiority of gesticulation was visible in 
the style of their performance. Two men, 
raised upon stilts, walked in amongst them, 
exhibiting a most gigantic stature ; pieces 
of bamboo were tied round their legs, reach- 
ing only a little above the knee, and ele- 
vating them three feet fro m the ground ; they 
moved slowly, without much ease, and had 
nothing to support them but the equipoise 
of their own bodies a man then appear- 
ed, masked, armed with a sword and 
switch, and habited in the old Portuguese 
dress; two others, resembling Dutchmen, 
and masked, preceded, who skipped about 
and drove all before' them in an imperative 
manner; eroupes of horrible masks, set with 
teeth, one of which had the head and pro- 
boscis 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 ; imitations 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 opposite to one ano- 
ther, two and two, all coui;tesied 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 produced a very pleasing ef- 
fect, and brought to remembrance the pic- 
tures of the fleeting 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 polish- 
ed, and weighing about a pound. “ They 
also use, in the manner that we throw quoits, 
small, flat, rounded pieces of the writing - 
slate, of the diameter of the bowls, but 
scarcely a quarter of an inch thick, also 
well polished.” 
GYMNOTHORAX, the rr.urma, in na- 
E e 2 
