I. ATHLETES PRACTISING JAVELIN AND QUOIT THROWING, AND PUGILISM, TO THE SOUND OF THE FLUTE- 2. VICTOR IN THE GAMES, ACCOMPANIED BY HERALD PAGE 20. THE STATUE OF THE QUOIT-THROWER 21. THROWING THE STONE IN APPENZELL 56. SHOOTING WITH THE BOW AMONGST THE ANCIENTS 58. THE CABÔCLOS OF BRAZIL SHOOTING 59. AN ENGLISH LADY PRACTISING WITH THE BOW AND ARROW (EARLY PART OF NINETEENTH CENTURY) PREFACE. BEFORE entering on the perusal of the following pages, the reader ought to be informed what the author has, and what he has not, attempted. It was not his design to write a scientific treatise on athletic exercises, or to furnish the professional or amateur gymnast with a body of historical facts relating to the sports now in vogue. His object was to cull from every source that came within his reach anecdotes descriptive of the most remarkable exhibitions of physical strength and skill, whether in the form of individual feats or of national games, from the earliest ages down to the present time. It need scarcely be said that it did not fall within his province to authenticate these, had it been possible; and the reader-versed in the literature of modern athletics, and in all facts as to times, distances, weights, and so forth, relating to them-who shrugs his shoulders at the statement of the doings of the giants of past days, must lay the blame elsewhere. The author has simply endeavoured to make a collection of "Wonders of bodily strength and skill" from the literature of all countries and all times, and if many of them may be assigned to the region of the improbable, or even of the incredible, he must respectfully refer doubting enquirers to the original sources. As to the arrangement of the work, it will readily be perceived that in dealing with a mass of materials which could not fail to be of a somewhat heterogeneous character, the task was a difficult one. The author has adopted that disposition which appeared to him the most natural, viz., into three books, devoted respectively to feats or games that demand chiefly physical strength; to those which are based on skill more than strength; and to those which require skill alone. It will no doubt be found in certain cases that particular performances can hardly be placed exclusively under any one of these heads; but on the whole it will probably be allowed that the arrangement is the best that could be adopted under the circumstances. It is necessary to add that in this translation numerous facts have been added to bring certain subjects up to the present time, and to adapt the work more particularly to the requirements of the English reader. |