Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/359

 grounds, but it soon spread abroad and became the national game.

Different sections of the same town may be pitted against each other, but more often contiguous villages defy each other and fly the banner of challenge. Out they pour into the empty, fenceless fields, some armed with thick clubs and protected by heavy padded helmets, while others merely throw stones. The champions of either side prance up and down before their respective factions, twirling their clubs and breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Stones begin to fly, most of them falling short of the mark, and the rest being deftly dodged. After the two warring factions have reinforced their courage by streams of most libellous invective, and have worked themselves up to the fighting pitch, they move toward each other warily, the stones fly more thickly, the champions prance more vaingloriously. Meanwhile the multitudes of white-clothed non-combatants, who cover the surrounding hills, shout encouragement to their respective favourites. The champions gradually close with each other and give and receive sounding thwacks on the head or shoulder, while over them the stones fly thick and fast. Suddenly a deafening yell goes up from one side and a wild charge is made. The opposite side gives way, and it looks as if the day were won, but as soon as the first ardour of the pursuit is over the fugitives turn and make a counter-charge. Unlucky is the wight who is overtaken before he gains the thick of his own ranks again. And so it goes on by the hour, rush and counterrush, wild shoutings of delighted spectators, clouds of dust, broken pates, profanity unlimited and gruesome gaps where erstwhiles were gleaming teeth. The excitement is much the same as that of the Spanish bull-fight, and the same fierce, elemental passions are let loose in participants and spectators alike. Rarely does a season pass but three or four men are killed in these encounters, but if the excitement runs too high the police or gendarmes are likely to interfere. In the heat of action houses are sometimes razed, but as a usual thing the fight