Cock-Fighting

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 175, 14 October 1927, Page 10

Cock-Fighting

Goes Strong as a Sport in the East BLU NOT IN N.Z. It is not everyone who lias witnessed a cock-fight, although doubtless many are qLiite aware that it is certainly a little more than a school boys’ game where two lads, each mounted on a human steed, tug vigorously at each other with the idea of knocking his opponent to the ground. This is called cock-fighting, but it is not the “real dinkum oil.” At Taikorei, a small settlement not far from Palmerston North, cockfig nting was considered by the boys of the village to be the best sport of all and every morning the lads would be seen making for the school paddock with their game-cocks tucked under their arms. There was certainly a lot of fun knocked up by watching two roosters go for one smother, but after a while the “cops ’ got the wind of it and the whole thing blew out. But through the East, and especially in the various islands of the Malayan Archipelago, the fighting of game-cocks is a favourite pastime of the native inhabitants; but few’ are aware that in at least; one of these islands cock-fighting is looked upon as something more than a sport or a means oi gambling, it being also a religious institution. This is pointed out by Mr. Herman Norden, F.R.G.S., in his very interesting book. “Byways of the Tropic Seas.” The writer explains that the Balinese have a firm belief of punishment in the hereafter to all evildoers. th€* tortures that w’ould be inflicted being terrible beyond telling. “If the Balinese take seriously the threatened torments of the wicked, each must l*e aware of a high personal rectitude,” he says. Doubtless, their many offerings and sacrifices keep their records clean, and in no phase of attention to the unseen spirts are they more assiduous than in the blood sacrifice accomplished by cockfighting. For cockfighting has a deep religious significance. That it is the favourite sport of the people, and that Judgment on the outcome is backed by bets, are mailers aside. Its first purpose is the conciliation of a spirit, and this is sometimes accomplished by the biting off of a fowl’s head. I was glad to learn that: the latter method is rarely practised, for I looked forward ■with interest to seeing the cock-fights.

“And with more than interest I bought a pair of gamecocks at the bazaar, that I might share in the sport to which I have been a devotee since boyhood. Also I bought a pair of gaffs, making: a careful selection among the many displayed in the shops. They ranged from steel knives in bamboo cases to gold blades in carved mahogany boxes decorated with religious pictures done in gold leaf and colour. But gold or steel, the gaffs were all murderous; four inches was not an unusual length. An ambition of every Balinese man is to own a costly pair of gaffs and a beautiful case for them. “Formerly the fights were of daily occurrence. But the people were so thoroughly engrossed in the sport, and with the effort to balance yesterday's losses with to-day’s winnings, that the officials found it hard to get men to work on the roads. Even the four to five days a year which is the average time of corvee labour exacted of each able-bodied citizen, seemed too much to spend away from the fighting mains. The Colonial Government took action. Cockfights were forbidden except on fixed days which occur every two months. On the great day every village in Bali has a fighting main, decorated with flowers, like a temple or feast-room. A small entrance fee is charged, and the money given to the temple. At each of these mains are umpire and timekeeper and professional starters. Outside there are stands, where sweets and drinks are sold. MATCHED BY WEIGHT “I was as impatient, for the coming of the day as was any Balinese. My birds were being trained by a boy I had hired, and I was eager to see how the sport, as practised in the Indies, would differ from my experience with it in the South, and in the old barn that stood on the dividing line between New York and New Jersey (a strategic position, selected in the hope that neither State would feel it had the right to interfere). I found that in Bali, as with us, the birds were matched by weight, but that there each bird is allowed only one artificial spur. I learned, too, that the manner of attaching the gaff is a religious rite. Mine were adjusted for me by no less a personage than the Poenggawa, the chief of the district. The battle was timed by a strange chronometer. Half a cocoanut shell was filled with water, which was allowed to drip through a hole in the bottom. In the event of both birds surviving until all the water had drained from the shell the starter of each feathered combata.nt — he is always a professional, not the owner—snatches his bird, straightens his feathers, and rubs him, talking to him all the time. When the bird is rested and refreshed he is sent back for another round.