tting," a very ancient pastime, mentioned in history
two centuries before the Christian era. The sport consisted in putting
an ox-skin, horns and all, over the head, and then trying to knock one's
adversary out of time by butting at him after the fashion of bulls,
the result being, as the history of a thousand years later tells us,
"smashed heads, broken arms, and blood running in the Palace yard."

The art of boxing, which included wrestling, had been practised by
the Chinese several centuries before butting was introduced. Its most
accomplished exponents were subsequently found among the priests of a
Buddhist monastery, built about A.D. 500; and it was undoubtedly from
their successors that the Japanese acquired a knowledge of the modern
_jiu-jitsu_, which is simply the equivalent of the old Chinese term
meaning "gentle art." A few words from a chapter on "boxing" in a
military work of the sixteenth century will give some idea of the scope
of the Chinese sport.

"The body must be quick to move, the hands quick to take advantage,
and the legs lightly planted but firm, so as to advance or retire with
effect. In the flying leap of the leg lies the skill of the art; in
turning the adversary upside down lies its ferocity; in planting a
straight blow with the fist lies its rapidity; and in deftly holding the
adversary face upwards lies its gentleness."

Football was played in China at a very early date; originally, with a
ball stuffed full of hair; from the fifth century A.D., with an inflated
bladder covered with leather. A picture of the goal, which is something
like a triumphal arch, has come down to us, and also the technical names
and positions of the players; even more than seventy kinds of kicks
are enumerated, but the actual rules of the game are not known. It is
recorded by one writer that "the winners were rewarded with flowers,
fruit and wine, and even with silver bowls and brocades, while the
captain of the losing team was flogged, and suffered other indignities."
The game, which had disappeared for some centuries, is now being revived
in Chinese schools and colleges under the control of foreigners, and
finds great favour with the rising generation.

Polo is first mentioned in Chinese literature under the year A.D. 710,
the reference being to a game played before the Emperor and his court.
The game was very much in vogue for a long period, and even women were
taught to play--on donkey-back. The Kitan Tartars