Wrestler

“ The wrestlers are kept by the Daimios, who are very proud of them, and fond of exhibiting their powers. Each wrestler is supplied with several attendants, and clad in magnificent garments, the privilege of wearing two swords being also accorded to them. When they perform, all their robes are removed, leaving them in the wrestler’s garb, a fringed apron, embroidered with the cognizance of their patron.
In wrestling, they try, not only to throw their antagonist, but to push him out of the arena, a man who is forced beyond the boundary being held as vanquished. ”

“ If set at ease, can thrill with drum-like throbs
That marshal on the spirit to success?—
You may be right. In life’s unending strife,
The wrestler the most fit to win the palm
May be the strong soul’s restlessness, while rest,
Like sweetmeats, all too sweet, when served ere meats,
But surfeits appetite before it acts.
“But look,” he added, starting suddenly;
“The sun has touch’d the earth. ”

“ More than once they loosen hold for a breath, and again grasp each other, till at last, by dint of sheer strength, the grey-headed wrestler draws the younger man to himself, and,70 with a sudden toss, throws him clear upon the ground. ”

“ What shall I do to him?'
'Never mind, little daughter!' answered the wrestler's wife; 'papa will teach him better manners. Take the grass broom and sweep the mouse away.'
Then there was a sound of sweeping, and immediately the dead elephant came flying over the wall.
'Ahem!' thought the wrestler outside, 'if the little daughter can do this, the father will be a worthy foe!'
So he set off to the wood to meet the Indian wrestler, whom he soon saw coming along the road, dragging a hundred and sixty carts laden with brushwood. ”

“ Rarely could a wrestler manage to get both his arms under those of his opponent: when he did, the bout was over in a moment. By collar and elbow each tried to twist the other off his feet or trip him. ”

“ It is no wonder that they should be so commonly proteges of the rich and distinguished. When an eminent wrestler retired in the year in which I first saw a good wrestling bout the ceremony of cutting his hair—for, like Samson, the wrestler wears his hair long—was performed by a personage who combined the dignities of an admiral and a peer. There is nothing of the bruiser in the looks of the smooth-faced wrestlers. ”

“ They know that a wrestler who considers, while he is in the grip of his adversary, whether he would not do well to give over, and so put an end to the weariness and the strain, is no sort of a wrestler. ”

“ The broadside designers also devoted some attention to the wrestler, who was a favourite caterer for the amusement of the public, but their training in the traditional art canons had rendered them unfit to appreciate the grand display of muscular force, that often revealed itself beneath the hide of the athlete, and as they could make nothing of the heavy features and elephantine limbs of their model, the few studies of the wrestling arena that have reached us have little attraction for the art collector. ”

“ Catching fair and even holds, they begin to wrestle, encouraged each by the shouts and cries of his kinsmen and by the calling of the old men and old women on the spirits of the ancestors. [99] Each wrestler tries to push his opponent into the territory that that opponent is defending and to down him there. ”

“ The people sit on the ground, spread with mats, in the open air, and eat and drink, while they watch the collision of the two mountains of flesh and its momentous issue. The exhibition cannot very well take place on rainy days. At the end of a day's performance, all the wrestlers in gorgeous aprons march to the arena as the umpire claps two blocks of hard wood, and go through a simple ceremony of stretching the arms in various directions formally. ”

“ Going away disconsolate, it espied the wrestler sleeping placidly under the tree, and at once made sure he was the author of the mischief; so, galloping up to the sleeping man, it stamped on his head in a furious rage, determined to crush him.
But, to his astonishment, the wrestler only stirred a little, and said sleepily, 'What is the matter? what is the matter? If you want to shampoo my head, why the plague don't you do it properly? What's worth doing at all is worth doing well; so put a little of your weight into it, my friend!'
The elephant stared, and left off stamping ”

“ If after some time the round is not decided by a throw, the umpire, who struts about like a turkey-cock, fanning himself, approaches. He plucks the girdle of the weaker combatant, when the wrestlers at once retire to the sides of the arena to rest, and to sprinkle a little water over themselves. ”

“ As the pressure increases, so does the pain. When the pain becomes intense enough, the wrestler rolls over and the contest is won. Some people can stand it longer than others; but all sooner or later must give up. In fact, skilled wrestlers, knowing that otherwise the inevitable end is a broken arm, 15 save themselves much tribulation by immediately conceding the bout once this deadly hold is gained.
I began to force Talbot Ward’s hand slowly up his back. ”

“ Then the wrestlers begin their play. Their wrestling does not seem like ours, but there are blows (given) , so severe as to break teeth, and put out eyes, and disfigure faces, so much so that here and there men are carried off speechless by their friends; they give one another fine falls too. ”

“ I couldn't possibly risk presenting myself as a strong man or a magician again. I became a ditch digger and a day laborer, and finally drifted into the professional wrestling racket. Many of the top wrestling promoters live in Washington, D. C. I rented a little white clapboard house with green shutters, out in the country beyond Silver Springs, Maryland.
I was careful to keep myself a second-rate wrestler. ”

“ He demands that a trained wrestler, pankratiast and boxer should be able to use both hands equally, so that if his opponent should succeed in turning him around he could defend himself from the other side. The wrestler would sometimes endeavor to place himself behind his adversary by a quick movement, then wind his leg around his opponent’s body and throw him. ”

“ By degrees the combat becomes animated, and the wrestlers hot and passionate, each adversary forgetting in the struggle the object of it—the trembling girl; at last the old giant, lifting the youth up above his head, flings him down at his feet, a corpse. ”

“ Prizes won at wrestling, or any other manly games, were either worn to church or suspended within it to a pillar near the door, on the following Sunday. This custom was particularly observed when the victory was obtained in another parish. I have often heard one who when young was a noted wrestler, and for many years champion of his parish, speak of the satisfaction with which he used to hang up a pair of spurs, gloves, yards of ribbon, lace, or whatever it might be, as a trophy in honour of old St. Levan. ”

“ There was no man on the railway line who could equal me at lifting rails or loading ballast waggons. I had great ambitions to become a wrestler and go on the stage. No workman on the permanent way could rival me in a test of strength. Wrestling appealed to me, and I threw the stoutest of my opponents in less than three minutes. I started to train seriously, bought books on physical improvement, and spent twelve shillings and sixpence on a pair of dumb-bells. During meal hours I persuaded my mates to wrestle with me. ”

“ Indeed, one of the commands of the papyrus implies that it was lawful to take a grip between an opponent’s legs, or round the thigh. [661] In wrestling groups which represent the heave we sometimes see a wrestler trying to save himself by seizing the other’s legs. Perhaps we may recognize as a wrestling scene a group which occurs on an Etruscan tomb. [662] One man has lifted another on to his shoulder, with his right arm clasped round his right thigh, and his left hand holding his right hand. He may intend to throw him, or he may merely be carrying him. ”

“ The wrestlers are lithe active young fellows, and enter the ring in exuberant spirits. Before the actual commencement of the struggle at close quarters, each resorts to a ridiculous ceremony, in order to propitiate some powerful deity to whom they look for assistance to achieve success. ”

“ A man sought only to kill his adversary, and if, after throwing him, he could break bones or ribs by stamping, or kicking, or pounding with the knees, success was complete. The earliest historical wrestler served his opponent in that manner. ”

“ When the military classes rose into power, wrestling became an important military art. In the wars of the time when single combats were common, the contending knights would often throw away their weapons and wrestle with each other. In such fights, the more skilled wrestlers were always victorious. It was then necessary for the military classes to hold friendly matches to test their skill in the art. ”

“ They have seen fat public wrestlers stand on opposite sides of a sanded ring, stoop, rubbing their thighs, and in a crouching attitude and growling, slowly advance upon one another. Then when near to one another, the spring is made and the men close. ”

“ When a reaction set in soon after the Restoration against the militarism of the past seven centuries, the public interest in wrestling rapidly cooled down, though many wrestlers now found as munificent patrons among merchants as among noblemen. ”

“ The constant exposure to fresh air and accustoming of the naked body to the rays of the sun, combined with the oiling and dusting mentioned above, produced in the wrestlers especially, though to some extent in all the athletes, a very dark complexion, which the ancients regarded as a mark of health and of manly courage, and often held up to admiration in contrast to the pale colouring of the artisans and stay-at-homes who “sat in the shade.” There were two principal methods in ordinary wrestling—standing and ground wrestling. ”

“ When a wrestler finds his girdle grasped on either side, he is at liberty to pass his hands under his adversary's arms and give an upward heave, thus applying a breaking strain at a point midway between the adversary's elbows and shoulders. ”

“ The real work of the day then commenced, and the wrestlers, in light clothing so shaped as not to impede their movements, entered the arena. At first there were several couples contending at the same time, but they were matched two against two, and the rule was that a combatant must fight three times successively and throw his antagonist at least twice on the ground before the prize could be adjudged to him. The great aim of the wrestler was to throw his adversary on the ground ”

“ He compares him to wrestlers, boxers, and runners in the public games. Have you ever seen two strong men wrestling? How their muscles harden into knots, and their veins swell full as if they would burst! ”

“ The following brief memoir of James Fawcett of Nenthead—one of the most accomplished wrestlers on record—will carry the reader back to a byegone period, when wrestling and various other amusements, which filled up the day's programme, were far more a rural following than at present ”

“ NORTH COUNTRY SPORTS AND PASTIMES. Wrestling and Wrestlers: Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Athletes of the Northern Ring; TO WHICH IS ADDED Notes on Bull and Badger Baiting. BY JACOB ROBINSON AND SIDNEY GILPIN. Of all the athletic amusements of the people, Wrestling is beyond doubt the best.—Christopher North. ”

“ But here was a man who sincerely did not mind what people thought of him, and so convention had no hold on him; he was like a wrestler whose body is oiled; you could not get a grip on him; it gave him a freedom which was an outrage. ”

“ At Hospet wrestling matches are held at a quiet spot outside the town, to witness which a crowd of many hundreds collect. The wrestlers, who performed before me, had the hair shaved clean behind so that the adversary could not seize them by the back hair, and the moustache was trimmed short for the same reason. [191] Two young wrestlers, whose measurements I place on record, were splendid specimens of youthful muscularity. ”

“ But before finishing this catalogue of intelligent fighting brutes, the faithful historian should not omit the wrestlers—bless my eyes, how very like men they look at times! They first make each other a make-believe bow, then shake each other by the paws, and then close. ”

“ The sound the wrestlers made by the slapping of their arms, the seizing of each other's necks for bringing each other down, and the grasping of each other's legs for dashing each other to the ground, became so loud that it resembled the roar of thunder or of falling cliffs. ”

“ Often when they had done, the women contended, sometimes with each other, and occasionally with men. Persons of the highest rank often engaged in this sport; and the sister of the queen has been seen wearing nearly the same clothing the wrestlers wore, covered all over with sand, and wrestling with a young chief in the midst of the ring, round which thousands of the queen’s subjects were assembled. ”

“ And though he was a student and his tastes were delicate, still he did not frown upon our rude sports, provided they were not low or brutal. "They make the body erect and supple and give strength and elasticity to the muscles. The body should be cultivated as well as the mind. What we want is a sound mind in a sound body."
Wrestling was the great sport in those days, and I was always fond of it. I was very strong naturally, and my trade as blacksmith had toughened my muscles wonderfully.
Our strongest man and best wrestler was Jonas Parker. ”

“ These curious proceedings take place in order, according to a prevalent superstitious notion, to bespeak the favour of the god who rules gladiatorial contests.
Four umpires, grave looking personages, are appointed, and stationed, pipe in mouth, at each pillar of the raised stage. A signal is given, and the two wrestlers uttering loud defiant shouts, and crowing like cocks, make a rush at each other, with all the fury and violence of two rival tups in the breeding season. ”