nd.

A stage was erected, and the young fellows of the neighbourhood were
wont to try conclusions with their friends or those celebrities from
more distant parts of the country who were anxious to lower their
colours.

The game was at times pretty rough, and the object of each combatant was
to break the skin on the scalp or forehead of his antagonist, _so as to
cause blood to flow_. As soon as the little red stream was seen to
trickle down the face of one or other the battle was at an end, and the
man who was successful in drawing first blood was declared the victor.
Similarly, German students, squabbling over love affairs or other
trivial matters, fight with a long sort of foil, which has a very short
lancet blade at the extreme point. Their object, like our old
cudgel-players, is to draw first blood, only our Teutonic cousins, in
drawing the blood, often lop off their friends' noses or slit open their
cheeks from ear to mouth.

There is a great similarity in these two games, because in each the
head, and the head alone, is the object aimed at. In the one case the
defeated party went away with a pretty severe bump on his head, and in
the other he hies him to a surgeon to have his nose fixed on, or his
cheek stitched up with silver wire.

I have never been fortunate enough to witness a bout with the cudgels,
but those who have been more lucky say that the combatants stood very
close to each other, making all the hits nearly straight on to the top
of their adversaries' heads, and guarding the returns and attacks with
their cudgels and with their left arms.

Considering the cudgel as a modern weapon, I am inclined to advocate its
use for prodding an enemy in the pit of the stomach, for, with the extra
eighteen inches or so of reach which your cudgel gives you, it is likely
that you may get your thrust well home, at any rate before the opponent
can hit you with his fist. Many of us know what a blow on the "mark"
with the naked fist will do. Well, the area of the knuckles is very much
greater than the area of the end of even a very stout stick, so that, if
you can put anything like the same force into the thrust that you can
into the blow, you will bring a smaller area to bear on a vital point,
and consequently work on that point with greater effect.

A grievous crab-tree (or blackthorn) cudgel, with two or three ounces of
lead let into one end, is a good thing to have under your pillow at
night. Armed with this inst