21(5 
COCK-FIGHTING. 
of all sorts, and even pursued in those more humane and enlightened 
times. The ancient Greeks and Romans were wont to call all the 
nations in the world barbarians; yet certainly, if we consider the many 
instances of cruelty practised among them, there was very little rea- 
son for the distinction. Human sacrifices were common both to them 
and the barbarians ; and the combats of men and wild beasts, and of 
men in the gladiatorial scenes, were spectacles of delight and festivity. 
The islanders of Delos were great lovers of cock-fighting, and Tana- 
gra, a city in Boeotia, the isle of Rhodes, Chalcis in Euboea, and the 
country of Media, were famous for their generous and magnanimous 
race of cocks. From Persia this kind of poultry was first brought into 
Greece; and if one may judge of the rest from the fowls of Rhodes 
and Media, the excellency of the broods, at that time, consisted in 
their weight and largeness, as the fowls of those countries were 
heavy and bulky, and of the nature of what our sportsmen call shake- 
bags, or turn-pokes. The Greeks had some method of preparing the 
birds for battle by feeding, as may be collected from the Columella. 
At first cock-fighting was partly a religious and partly a political 
institution at Athens, and was there continued for improving the 
seeds of valour in their youth ; but afterwards perverted, both there 
and in other parts of Greece, to a common pastime, without any poli- 
tical or religious institution, as is now practised among us. The Ro- 
mans were prone to imitate the Greeks. They did not, however, 
adopt this practice very early. It may be gathered from Columella, 
that the Romans did not use the sport in his time. This author 
styles cock-fighting a Grecian diversion ; and speaks of it in terms of 
ignominy, as an expensive amusement, unbecoming the frugal house- 
holder,and often attended with the ruin of the parties that followed it ; 
as still happens too often in England. The Romans at last adopted 
the custom, although not till the decline of the empire. The first 
cause of contention between the two brothers, Bassianus and Geta, 
sons of the emperor Septimus Severus, happened, according to Hero- 
dian, in their youth, about the fighting of their cocks. Cocks and 
quails, fitted for engaging one another to the last gasp, are compared 
with much propriety to gladiators. Consequently, one would expect 
that when the scenes of the amphitheatre were discarded, on the 
establishment of the Christian religion, (the shedding of man’s blood in 
sport, being of too cruel a nature to be patronized under an institution 
so merciful as the Christian,) cock-fighting w^ould also have been 
abandoned. The fathers of the church continually inveighed against the 
spectacles of the arena, and upbraided their adversaries with them. 
These indeed were more unnatural and shocking than a main of 
cocks ; but this, however, had a tendency towards infusing the like 
ferocity and implacability into the breasts and dispositions of men. 
The cock is not only an useful animal, but stately in his figure, and 
magnificent in his plumage. His tenderness towards his brood is 
such, that, contrary to the custom of many other males, he will 
scratch and provide for them with an assiduity almost equal to that 
of the hen ; and his generosity is so great, that, on finding a hoard of 
meat, he will chuckle the hens together, and, without touching one bit 
himself, will relinquish the whole. He was highly esteemed in some 
