A CHINESE HACKENSCHMIDT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2413, 30 January 1909, Page 10 (Supplement)

A CHINESE HACKENSCHMIDT.

500 WRESTLERS IN C'OxMPETITION

Those Avhuso knoAvledge of the Oriental is confined to a casual acquaintance with the local Chine.jC gardener of Tuundryman, will be QU ■ prised to hear tlmt aAvay in the northwest of Mongolia aro .great six-foot wrestlers whose physieial development would compare favorably wiih Saudow. . . . , Mr. F. A. Larsen, a missionary ol the British and Foreign Bible Society, tells in “The Bible in the World ' ol the great athlete contests at Clntung. A city of tents springs up like the Prcphetfe gourd. Where was abaro plain is seen a canvass city oi Io,UPU people, who have journeyed out to see the festival. Five hundred trained wrestlers are at hand to participate. 'l’lio Mongol Avrestlers are very strongly built, and a good many of them stand about six feet. Their muscles aro unusually developed. In their wrestling they showed great strong! h, lifting each other high in the air. jbe best of them would probably be considered good wrestlers in any country. The man who Avins three years in succession lias the honor of becoming the Bogdo’s champion. ( a kind of free nobleman). He has the privilege ol taking what he needs, whether food to eat or horses to ride., from any man in the State. He is respected- as a big man every whore. ’The champion is a man of *11) years of age, Git (all* anil had a very broad chest. Lie had to work.hard to get bis victory this, year. He fainted when wrestling Avifcli a young man who was very strong and quick, It was a strango sight 'to see them—a few' at a time— wrestling from morning till evening in the hot sun day after day. They keep on until the best- of 500 trained (wrestlers gains the victory. They sweat; bleed, and faint.-and get hurt without showing any temper, yet each is keen to get the victory, They salute one another after- each match by taking hold of each other’s hands, and apparenti Q.iods oiq Iffifiio A[