DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0124
AN EGYPTIAN TOURNAMENT.
115
pivot around which their movements were made.
They rode round in a circle, with their spears in
the sand and their eyes keenly fixed on each other,
watching- an opportunity to strike ; chased, turned,
and doubled, but never leaving the pivot; occa-
sionally the spears were raised, crossed, and struck
together, and a murmuring ran through the crowd
like the cry in the fencing-scene in Hamlet, " a
hit, a fair hit," and the parties separated, or again
dropped their poles in the centre for another round.
The play for some time seemed confined to slaves
and dependants, and among them, and decidedly
the most skilful, was a young Nubian. His mas-
ter, a Turk, who was sitting on the mat, seemed
particularly pleased with his success.
The whole of this seemed merely a preliminary,
designed to stir up the dormant spirit of the mas-
ters. For a long time they sat quietly, puffing
their pipes, and probably longing for the stimulus
of a battle-cry to rouse them from their torpor. At
length one of them, the master of the Nubian,
slowly rose from the mat and challenged an an-
tagonist. Slowly he laid down his pipe, and took
and raised the pole in his hand ,* but still he was
not more than half roused. A fres.h horse was
brought him, and, without taking off his heavy
cloth mantle, he drowsily placed his left foot in the
broad shovel stirrup, his right on the rump of the
horse behind the saddle, and swung himself inta
the seat. The first touch of the saddle seemed to
rouse him; he took the pole from the hand of his
115
pivot around which their movements were made.
They rode round in a circle, with their spears in
the sand and their eyes keenly fixed on each other,
watching- an opportunity to strike ; chased, turned,
and doubled, but never leaving the pivot; occa-
sionally the spears were raised, crossed, and struck
together, and a murmuring ran through the crowd
like the cry in the fencing-scene in Hamlet, " a
hit, a fair hit," and the parties separated, or again
dropped their poles in the centre for another round.
The play for some time seemed confined to slaves
and dependants, and among them, and decidedly
the most skilful, was a young Nubian. His mas-
ter, a Turk, who was sitting on the mat, seemed
particularly pleased with his success.
The whole of this seemed merely a preliminary,
designed to stir up the dormant spirit of the mas-
ters. For a long time they sat quietly, puffing
their pipes, and probably longing for the stimulus
of a battle-cry to rouse them from their torpor. At
length one of them, the master of the Nubian,
slowly rose from the mat and challenged an an-
tagonist. Slowly he laid down his pipe, and took
and raised the pole in his hand ,* but still he was
not more than half roused. A fres.h horse was
brought him, and, without taking off his heavy
cloth mantle, he drowsily placed his left foot in the
broad shovel stirrup, his right on the rump of the
horse behind the saddle, and swung himself inta
the seat. The first touch of the saddle seemed to
rouse him; he took the pole from the hand of his