frames of the wrestlers their rich garments, and led them up to the treaty
house.
A circular space of some twelve feet in diameter had been enclosed within
a ring, and the ground carefully broken up and smoothed in front of the
building, while in the portico, divans covered with red cloth, were arranged for
the Japanese commissioners, the Commodore, his officers and their various
attendants. The bands from the ships were also present, and enlivened the
intervals during the performance with occasional lively strains. As soon as
the spectators had taken their seats, the naked wrestlers were brought out
into the ring, and the whole number, being divided into two opposing parties,
tramped heavily backward and forward, looking defiance at each other,
but not engaging in any contest, as their object was merely to parade their
points, to give the beholders, as it were, an opportunity to form an estimate
of their comparative powers, and to make up their betting-books. They
soon retired behind some screens placed for the purpose, where all, with the
exception of two, were again clothed in full dress and took their position on
seats in front of the spectators.
The two who had been reserved out of the band, now, on the signal being
given by the heralds, who were seated on opposite sides, presented themselves.
They came in, one after the other, from behind the screen, and
walked with slow and deliberate steps, as became such huge animals, into
the centre of the ring. Then they ranged themselves, one against the other,
at a distance of a few yards. They crouched for a while, eyeing each other
with a wary look, as if each were watching for a chance to catch his antagonist
off his guard. As the spectator looked on these over-fed monsters,
whose animal natures had been so carefully and successfully developed, and
as he watched them, glaring with brutal ferocity at each other, ready to exhibit
the cruel instincts of a savage nature, it was easy for him to lose all
sense of their being human creatures, and to persuade himself that he was
beholding a couple of brute beasts thirsting for one another’s blood. They
were, in fact, like a pair of fierce bulls, whose nature they had not only acquired,
but even their look and movements. As they continued to eye each
other they stamped the ground heavily, pawing as it were with impatience,
and then stooping their huge bodies, they grasped handfuls of dirt and flung
it with an angry toss over their backs, or rubbed it impatiently between their
giant palms, or under their stout shoulders. They now crouched low, still
keeping their eyes fixed upon each other and watching every movement, until,
in an instant, they had both simultaneously heaved their massive forms
in opposing force, body to body, with a shock that might have stunned an ox.
The equilibrium of their monstrous frames was hardly disturbed by the concussion,
the effect of which was but barely visible in the quiver of the hanging
flesh of their bodies. As they came together, they had thrown their
brawny arms around each other, and were now entwined in a desperate struggle,
each striving with all his enormous strength to throw his adversary.
Their great muscles rose with the distinct outline of the sculptured form of
a colossal Hercules, their bloated countenances swelled up with gushes of
blood which seemed ready to burst through the skin of their reddened faces,
and their huge bodies palpitated with emotion as the struggle continued.
At last, one of the antagonists fell, with his immense weight, heavily upon
the ground, and being declared vanquished, was assisted to his feet and conducted
from the ring.
The scene was now somewhat varied by a change in the kind of contest
between two succeeding wrestlers. The heralds, as before, summoned the
antagonists, and one, having taken his place in the ring, assumed an attitude
of defence with one leg in advance, as if to steady himself, and his bent
body, with his head lowered, placed in position, as if to receive an attack.
Immediately after, in rushed the other, bellowing loudly like a bull, and,
making at once for the man in the ring, dashed, with his head lowered and
thrust forward, against the head of his opponent, who bore the shock with
the steadiness of a rock, although the blood streamed down his face from
his bruised forehead, which had been struck in the encounter. This manoeuvre
was repeated again and again, the same one acting always as the
opposing, and the other as the resisting, force; and thus they kept up their
brutal contest until their foreheads were besmeared with blood, and the
flesh on their chests rose in great swollen tumors, from the repeated blows.
This disgusting exhibition did not terminate until the whole twenty-five
had, successively, in pairs, displayed their immense powers and savage
qualities.
From the brutal performance of these wrestlers, the Americans turned
with pride to the exhibition—to which the Japanese commissioners were
now in their turn invited—of the telegraph and the railroad. I t was a
happy contrast, which a higher civilization presented, to the disgusting display
on the part of the Japanese officials. In place of a show of brute
animal force, there was a triumphant revelation, to a partially enlightened
people, of the success of science and enterprise. The Japanese took great
delight in again seeing the rapid movement of the Lilliputian locomotive;
and one of the scribes of the commissioners took his seat upon the ear,
while the engineer stood upon the tender, feeding the furnace with one hand,
and directing the diminutive engine with the other. Crowds of the Japanese
gathered around, and looked on the repeated circlings of the train with
unabated pleasure and surprise, unable to repress a shout of delight at each
blast of the steam whistle. The telegraph, with its wonders, though before
witnessed, still created renewed interest, and all the beholders were unceasing
in their expressions of curiosity and astonishment. The agricultural instruments
having been explained to the commissioners by Dr. Morrow, a formal
delivery of the telegraph, the railway, and other articles, which made up the
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