Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/62

Rh IX. FEUDALISM SUPPRESSED POPULAR ATHLETIC EXERCISES. the advent of chivalry, the art of boxing waned. The evolution of feudal aristocracy, with other and widely different exercises, pastimes and weapons from those of the common people, made boxing unfashionable.

With the advance of feudalism came the growth of iron armor, until, at last, a fighting-man resembled an armadillo. He was iron-clad from top to toe. His weapons had changed accordingly. The short sword of the Greek and Roman soldier, good for a stout hand-to-hand fight, was replaced by a long and heavy blade and a ponderous iron-spiked mace.

Boxing in those days came to be regarded as mere child's play, or as the rude pastime of the vulgar.

The baron was a mounted man, who jousted with a ten-foot lance, and fought dismounted with an axe, or a sword five or six feet long, double-hilted, weighing from eight to twelve pounds.

The student of sociology will find in the