Buffalo Fights in South Burmah.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 849, 8 June 1888, Page 10

Buffalo Fights in South Burmah.

The buffalo fights of Burmah are as much a national sport as the bull fights of Spain, and possess the advantage of being free from the cruelties practised in the latter. Indeed, they may be compared to a wrestling match, strength and skill both being brought into full play, and each buffalo striving to conquer the other as much by strategy and artifice as fay brute force. The strongest looking yourig males are selected for training, and carefully brought up and tended, each village and township generally owning two or three, the expenses of feeding being defrayed by public subscription. The fights take place late in October, at the ecd of the rainy season, and no one is more ready for the holiday and the fun than happy -go-lucky Jack Burmau, the Irishman of the East.

A large field having be;n selected, huts are built round it, raised on poles some Sft from the ground, for the Burmese upper ten and their families ; a wooden building, dignified by the name of the Grand Stand, being erected for the European visitors. For a week previous to the event the rival animals are paraded through the streets, accompanied by their admirers and backers and a band of music. Bets are freely made and

controversy rage 3 high as to the relative merits of the animals. They themselves seem to catch the spirit of the thing, and move 6lowly and proudly along, very different to the ordinary ‘slouch’ of tiie working buffalo.

The combats begin at noon, and the roads present the appearance of an Oriental Derby Day for at least three hours before.' Well-to-do merchants drive along iu every variety of vehicle , some decidedly ante-diluvian in appearance. Country cousins come in their family nullock cars, smoking huge cheroots, or chewing betel-nut, supremely indifferent to the jolts that every now and then throw them from side to side ; while gamins, with very scanty clothing, stand by the roadside, freely chaffing the various groups as they pass along. The buffaloes are brought into thofieldfrom opposite sides, lead by a string passed through the nostrils. As soon as they catch sight of each other they are let go, and, galloping forward, they chargeone auother forehead to forehead, meeting with a crash and a shock which sends them both staggering backwards several yards. Simultaneously they drop on their knees, and, locking their horns together, each thrusts and parries with the dexterity of a fencing master, striving to gore the other in the neck or under the shoulder.

After battling thus for some time they rise again, and then each calls all his strength and weight into play, striving to force the other backward off the field. The crowd get 9 excited, cries of encouragement are heard from all parts of the field; while the rival trainers, half frantic, jumpon the backs of the animals, shouting and pushing away at their shoulders with might and main. At last weight tells, and tho defea'ed one fairly turns tail and bolts, amid the jeers and shouts of the crowd.

The old fighter will often thrust his liorn under the foreleg of bis rival and throw him on his side, dislocating his shoulder, and rendering him hors de combat. The victor is led up before the grandstand, surrounded aud cairessed by his admirers, while his trainer, half beside himself with joy, dances a kind of can-can on his back. A red ribbon is affixed to bis horns and be is led away to be paraded round the town in the evening. - . The programme generally lasts three dayß, eight to ten fights taking place each day, and is the occasion of a general holiday amongßt all classes and conditions. The names given the animals are very suggestive— ‘Than Kat' (the iron ‘ Moung Lay ’ (the heavy one), aud ‘ Moung Oung ’ (the conqueror) being the commonest met with, A. Douglas Slkigh, Late Education Department, British Burmah.