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Horse Racing Under Mediaeval Rules
OME, Aug. 28. In no other country
R
are ancient usages and customs
o well cherished as In Italy. The
life t the middle ages could be
described from nhiv-rvatlon and
study of present day Institutions. Thus
- - (r-f . . I
the Pallo races in men a on juiy
August 16 have retained the character they
bad when Instituted In 1650.
The origin of these races could be traced
back to ancient Roman times. Before they
were Instituted In Siena the annual races
were run by buffaloes ridden by Jockeys,
which contests supplanted bull fights In
1599, when, to quota a writer of the time,
"the habits of the people began to become
more gentle."
Pallo Is derived from pallium and refers
to a banner awarded to the winning horse.
The ten horses that run the race each rep
.rjeent a contrada or ward of the city. Orlg
Ktally the city was divided Into sixty
,warda,' each characterized by a speclat
name, generally that of some animal or
1 natural object, and each having Its own
church and patron saint, as well as its spe
cial banners, emblems and colors.
After the plague of 1348 the wards were
reduced to forty-two, and subsequently the
Medici reduced the number to twenty-three.
In 1675 six contrada were suppressed for
bad conduct and thus only seventeen are
now left.
Ten wards are selected by lot to run the
Pallo. The horses are assigned by lot to
the wards a week before the race takes
place. The following are the names of
the wards: Tortols, Wood, Snail, Panther
And Eagle, of the first division; Boar,
Tower, Caterpillar, Owl, Bull and Unicorn,
of the second; and Dragon, Goose, Wolf,
Cairo the
(Copyright, 1907, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
iaihu, .oepi. 6. (special corre
spondence of The Bee.) Stand
with rae on the bill of the citadel
and take a look over Cairo. We
u rn hlirh iluivi t V. T? i t. - X' O -n
m
far above the minarets of mosques which
rise out of the vast plain of houses be
low. We are as high up as the tops of
the pyramids, which stand out upon the
yellow deaert. away off at the left. The
un li p Waxing, and there la a smoky haze
over the Nile valley, but It la not dense
nough to hide Cairo, me city, which Ilea
tight under us, 1. the largest on this con
tinent, and one of the mightiest of the
wxrld. It now contains l.Ooo.OoO inhabitants,
nd. to alia. It Is fast r.nm.in,.,i.. u-n
pella and Memphis In the height of their
iflory.
Of all the Mohammedan cities of the
world, Cairo Is now growing the fastest.
It already has only loo.tmo less people than
Constantinople. It Is four times as big aa
Damascus, eight times as big as Bagdad
and fifteen or twenty times the size of
either Mecca or Medina, where the Prophet
Mohammed was born and died. It has
more than doubled Its population since I
last visited It, and with my glass I can
now see the scaffolding about the new
buildings which are rising here and there
over the plains. The town now covers an
area equal to fifty quarter-section farms,
and Its buildings sre so crowded together
that they form - an almost continuous
structure. The only trees to be seen are
those In the new French quarter, which
He on the outskirts.
. IMohammrdaai Cairo.
f The most of the city Is of Arabian archi
tecture. It Is flat-roofed and Is made up
or yellowish-white buildings, so crowded
along narrow strews that they can hardly
be seen at this distance. Hero and there.
ut of the field of white, rise tall, round
tone towers with galleries running about
them. They dominate the whole city, and
Jinder each la a mosque. Those mosques
are the Mohammedan churches. There are
hundreds of them In Cairo, and not a few
have been recently erected. Everyone has
I Its worshipers, and upon every tower, five
Itlmea a day, the shrlll-volced Arabian
Iprleet rails out for the people to come to
prayers. There ts a man now calling from
the minaret of the mosque of Sultan
Hasan, which Is Just under us. The mosque
liself covers more thsn two acres, and the
nlnaret Is 'about half as high as the Wash-
rift on monument. The priest la standing
gallery, with scaffolding above and
ow him. His mosaue Is being repaired.
Id 00,000 will be spent upon It when
present plans are completed. Just next
aoetber mosque, recently begun, and
ftttout B4 ca vluencea. tbat
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.
dlrafre. ox and Deer of the third.
Although only ten wards compete for the
race all take part in the preliminary parade
and two days beforehand the banners of
all seventeen are taken to the cathedral,
where they are hung till the time for using
them comes. The patron Balnt of each
ia.ro. piays an important part during the
races, as although the racea are run In
ui loo virgin io wnom tne Blenese
have from time Immemorial dedicated them-
elves, still the people of the winning ward
ascribe the victory to the power of their
protecting saint.
In fact on the day preceding the race
two pages from each contrada, dressed In
mediaeval costume, carry a huge basket of
artificial flowers to the church of their
atnt and after the racea are over the win
ning horse la escorted by his contrada to
the church. Into which he Is carried for
benediction. There la a deep rooted Jeal
ousy between the different contrada which
has outlived the old divisions of party,
and, even at present, leads to scenes of
violence and bloodshed.
The Jockeys are professionals, and they,
like the horses, are assigned by lot to the
wards. The means adopted to secure the
prize are often most unscrupulous. Every
possible attempt Is made to corrupt or buy
up the Jockey. Bometlmea two contrada
are so Jealous of a third that they agree
to prevent Its winning, even If they have
Big Egyptian City
Mohammedanism Is by no means dead,
and that these people worship God with
their pockets as well as with their tongues.
In the Alabaster mosque, which stands at
my back, fifty men are now praying, and
In the courtyard a score of others are
washing themselves before they go In to
make their vows of repentance to Ood and
the Prophet, Not far below me I can see
the mosque el-Axhar, which has been a
Mohammedan university for more than a
thousand years, and where something like
t.OOO students are new learning the Koran
and Koranlo law.
During my stay tn Tunis the Mohamme
dans were celebrating their Lent or Rama
dan, and not a one of the vast population
of Tunisia, who believe In the Prophet,
would take a bite to eat from sunrise to
unset, and the more devout would not even
wallow their spittle. Here at Cairo I
have seen the people preparing to take
their pilgrimage to Mecca, rich and poor
starting out on that long Journey Into the
Arabian deaert. At present many go part
of the way by water. The ships leaving;
Alexandria and Sues are crowded with pil
grims and there Is a regular exodus from
Port Sudan and other places on this side
of the Red sea. They go across to Jeddah
and there lay oft their costly clothing and
make their way Inland, clad only In aprons
and a piece of cloth over the left shoulder.
This Is so of the rich and the poor. Many of
the former carry gifts and other offerings
for the sacred city, and such gifts cost the
Egyptian government alone a quarter of a
million dollars a year. Not only the khe
dlve, but the Mohammedan rulers of the
Budan, send gifts, and I understand that
the new railroad which has been recently
completed from far up the Nile to the Red
sea ts now giving special rates to pilgrim
age parties. It Is by no means safe to
look upon Mohammedanism as a dead re
ligion, i
Rellgloa 4l Llaa.
And still I sometimes wonder whether
this Mohammendaniam Is not a religion of
the lips rather than of the heart. These
people are so accustomed to uttering the
words of prayer that they forget the sense.
The use of the word God Is heard every
where In the bazars. The water carrier,
who goes about with a pigskin uoon his
back. Jingling his brass cups to announce
hta business, cries out: "May Ood recom
pense roe," and his customer replies ss he
drinks by giving him a copper In the name
of the Lord. The lemonade peddler, who
carries a glass gottle aa big as a four,
gallon crock, does the same, and I venture
the name of the Petty Is uttered here more
frequently than tn any other part of tha
world. It U lorouia this custom, ct re-
THE OMAHA
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to renounce the prize themselves.
Tho horsea are ridden without saddle
and each of the Jockey Is armed with a
thick whip called nerbo, with which by the
old rules of tha race still In force he can
if he chooses not only cut his companions
across the face or beat back their horses
and thus prevent them from winning, but
also knock them off thir horsea. It Is not
uncommon for nerce fights to take place
between the riders, several of whom may
be beaten off their horses,
As the race draws near the close the
losing parties often attack each other vlo-
lently and use every means In their power
to drag and beat back the winning horse.
so that in most cases the race degenerates
into a fight. Since 1719 the whips used by
the Jockeys are distributed by the police
at the time of the race In order to prevent
the use of certain long whips which were
such formidable weapons that they could
easily be used to knock off the Jockeys
from their horses, with great danger to
their lives.
Except for this change the rules of the
races have never been altered, and they
are practically the came as they were
about 300 years ago. The race takes place
In the Piazza del Campo, which Is semi
circular In shape and resembles a cockle
shell, sloping gently from the curving rim
toward the straight side. In the center of
which stands the municipal palace.
ligtous pretext that I am able to get free of
the beggars of the city. I have learned two
Arab words. "Allah yatlk," which mean:
"May God give thee enough and to spare."
When a beggar pesters me I say these
words gently. He looks upon me In aston
ishment and then touches his forehead In
a polite Mohammedan salute and goes
away.
City of taeKa-yptlans.
The tourist who passes through Cairo and
stays at the big hotels Is apt to think that
the city Is fast becoming a Christian one.
He Is told that the British are Its real gov
ernors, and as he drives over asphalt
streets lined with the fine buildings of the
European quarter It seems altogether Eng
lish and French. If he Is acquainted with
many foreigners he finds them living In
beautiful villas, or It may be In apartment
houses such as would not be out of place
In any city of Europe or of the United
' I rEEKABOO VEDj OF A CAIItQ
SUNDAY BEE: SEPTEMBER
This plana Is stone pan4' nd quits .in
adapted for a race oourse owing to its un
evenness, sudden curves and steep descents.
At the most dangerous points mattresses
are laid to break the fall of horse or rider
for the race is seldom run without acci
dents, but there Is a tradition that the
Virgin will not allow a rider to be killed
outright during the race, and in fact only
one Jockey Is known to have been killed,
Ostl Pact In 1719, after which the number
of horses was restricted to ten by a civic
decree.
The piazza is richly decorated on the day
of the races. The pavement Is strewn with
yellow sand, tiers of scats are built round
the lower stories of the buildings and
draped with cloth, and temporary wooden
barriers are erected round its boundary
thus forming the race course.
From every window and balcony rich
draperies of every fabric and color are
hung, while flags float from every building.
Needless to say, the wholo piazza is
crowded, and It looks as if it were paved
with faces.
After a long wait under the broiling mid
summer sun, which, however, does not seem
to have any effect on the natural cheerful
ness of the crowd, the course is cleared
and the parade of the contrada enters,
while the bands burst forth Into music.
First come the seven representatives of the
contrada that do not take part In the race.
Located at
States. He does his shopping In modern
stores, and gradually comes to the conclu
sion that the Arab city Is fast passing
away. This is not so. Cairo Is a city of
the Egyptians. Not one-tenth of its inhab
itants are Christians, and It is the 800,000
or 900,000 natives who make up the life
blood of this municipality. They are
people of a different world from ours, as
we can see if we go down and stroll
through the city. They do business In
different ways, and they trade much the
same now as they have been trading for
generations back. Their stores are crowds
along narrow streets which wind this
way and that, so that one might lose
himself In them. Every branch of busi
ness has Its own section. In one place
there are nothing but saddlers, In another
only shoemakers, and In another the work
ers In copper, sliver and brass. The book
sellers and bookbinders have a street of
' "
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Y.-
A
GIRL, CARPF.NTERHDAKKDX CALLED -CALXFOPIA" AND NU2i-
8.
1P07.
Slill Popular Sport at Rome
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They are all dressed In mediaeval costumes-,
rich In color and texture. A drum
mer beating wildly on his drum marches
In front and behind him come several mem
bers of the contrada with the banner and
emblems of their district.
The ten other contrada follow. Besides
their drummers each has two standard
bearers, who wave their flags backward
and forward, fling them high up In the air,
catch them as they fall, twist them round
their bodies and execute all sorts of tricks
with wonderftil skill and grace. Four
oSlcers and the captain of the contrada,
attended by two pages, all In ancient cos-
tumes, bring up the rear. Then, accom-
panted by his groom, comes the running
horse, decorated with flowers, richly capari
soned and with his hoofs covered with gold
leaf, and Immediately following him comes
the Jockey or fante, riding another horse
and wearing a plumed helmet and a parti
colored dress with the arms of the contrada
on his back.
Aa each contrada passes' It Is saluted
with loud cries. Meanwhile the drums are
all beating together, bands playing, people
shouting and cheering, multicolored flags
waving. All this noise and color In a space
enclosed with old mediaeval palaces and
filled with a modern but Italian and hence
excited crowd, carries one back out of the
present century into the middle ages.
The Illusion is rendered complete when
the Head of the
their own, and so have the clothiers and
tailors. Nearly every store Is a factory
as well, and most of the goods offered
you re made In the shops.
I have been In most of the great ba
ara of the world, and I know of none
more Interesting than those of Cairo. In
them thousands are buying and selling,
and each narrow street has a . stream of
color which flows back and forth all day
long. From the top of one's donkey this
stream ts red and white upon a bed of
black and blue. The red la the fes caps
and the white the turbans, while the
blacks and blues are the gowns of the
people below them. The sides of the
streets are bright with the goods hanging
out of each little shop, and the whole Is
like wandering through a world's fair In
which the exhibitors are dark-faced, tur
baned, long-gowned men, who sit cross
legged on carpets, with ail the treasures
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drawn by six horses and surrounded by
men In armor, the great Carrocclo, with
a tall pillar in the center, surmounted by
a bell and with the flags of the contrada
grouped on It, slowly rolls by at the end
of the procession. The Carrocclo la the
old war chariot of Siena and the most
characteristic feature of the whole show.
It la a relio of mediaeval warfare. In
vented by the Milanese and originally In
tended to bear the flag of the city In bat
tle. In fact, even today It carries the black
and white colors of Siena.
The object of this war chariot In the mid-
die ages was to give solidity to the charges
of the army in the field, and it waa a
point of honor to defend It to the last.
The Carrocclo always accompanied the
army, and wherever It stopped waa the
place of battle. The bell served to give
the signal for attack or retreat or to call
to council.
The direction of the car waa generally
given to the most expert In tactics and the
art of war and he became Its captain. lie
was accompanied by eight trumpeters and
a priest, who said mass and shrived the
dying during battle.
The Carrocclo originally used In the Siena
races waa taken from the Florentines In
the battle of Monte Aperto, fought in 1200,
when the Sienese, who numbered only 1,100,
against 40,000 Florentines, killed 10,000 of
the latter. The carrocclo now In use waa
"37
of the orient piled about them.
Although the foreigner and his Innova
tions are almost everywhere In evldunce,
native Cairo la much the same now as It
was In the days of the Arabian Nights.
These people believe the same aa they did
then; they wear the same costumes; the
women are as closely veiled, and all the
characters of the days 'of Haroun Al
Rasehad are to be seen. Here the vision
ary Alnascher squats In his narrow, cell
like store, with his basket of glass before
him. He has a long water pipe In his
mouth and Is musing on the profits he
will make from peddling his glass, grow
ing richer and richer, until the khedlve
will be glad to offer him his daughter In
marriage, and he will spurn her as she
kneels before him. We almost expect to
see the glass turned over as It was In the
story, and his castles In the air shattered
with his kick. Next to him Is a turbaned
Mohammedan who reminds us of Slndbad
the Bailor, and a little further on is a
Barmecide, washing his hands with Invis
ible soap In Invisible water, and appar
ently inviting his friends to come and have
a great feast with him. Here two long
gowned, gray-bearded men are sitting on
a bench drinking coffee together; and there
a straight, tall maiden, robed in a gown
which falls from her head to her feet and
with a long black veil covering all of her
face but her eyes, looks over the wares of
a handsome young Syrian, reminding us of
how the houris shopped In the days of the
past.
Donkeys and Camels.
Oriental Cairo Is a city of donkeys and
camels. In the French quarter you may
have a modern cab for 15 cents a ride, or
you may Jump on the electric street cars
and go a long distance for from tV, to 5
rents, or you may even hire an automobile
to carry you over the asphalt. The streets
'of the native city are too narrow for such
things, and you are crowded to the wall
again and again for fear that the spongy
feet of the camels may tread upon you.
You are grazed by loaded donkeys, carry
ing grain, bricks or bags on their backs;
and4he donkey boy who is trotting behind
an animal ridden by some rich Egyptian
or his wife, calls upon you to get out of
the way. The Honkey Is the best means of
getting around through the native city and
the cheapest. You may hire one for two
hours for 20 cents for half a day for 50
or 0 cents and all day for, II. Every
riding animal la numbered. My donkey of
today was named "California" and trie
number on his saddle was 977.
Home ft nee r C'ltlseas.
The characters of these bazars are odd
to an extreme and one must have an edu
cated eye to know who they are. Take
that nan in green tuibenj be U looked
made after the old model.
After the procession's slow parage
around the ring, the representatives of tho
contrada take their seal In n si" "U1 n o
tion reserved for them and the race be
gins. Tho Jockeys take off t.n-ir helmets
and put on caps of the color of their con
trada. The police distribute tlie whips, n
gun, 1s fired, tho rope falls and the horse
shoot forward amid a thunderous upro:ii'.
A lively stniBKle Is then seen nwo.ii- "
riders. They strike one another fierce. y.
thc grapple together anJ stnv lu
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their adversaries' horses back. Meanwhile
the people, wildly excited, Juni;i and screnm,
some hiss and hoot, while others applniid.
At almost every turn of the course the
race Is three turns around the piazza
some Jockey is flung heivdlong against the
padded mattresses. Others are dragged oft
their horses by sheer force, but generally
these succeed in catching their adversary'
bridle and spoil his race as well.
Sometimes a horso or two, riderless and
maddened by the tumult, break away and
clearing the barrier rush through the ex
cited crowd within, creating a panic and
Increasing the confusion and uproar. Aa
the successful horse nears the goal the
people of his contrada become wild with,
Joy.
After the race the crowd rushes over the
course and runs toward tho winner, the
majority to vent their anger on him, the
others, those of his contrada, to protect
him. He Is surrounded, lifted off his horso,
embraced, hugged and kissed until ho la
almost suffocated.
The police generally rescue him both from,
his friends and enemies. After a while
both the winning Jockey and horse are
escorted by the peoplo of their contrada
to the post, wtjere the prize, or pallo, la
awarded and the horse Is borne away In
triumph to church, where the banner Just
won is bjessed.
For weeks after the race the festivities
of the successful contruda continue. The)
horse Is paraded through the streets with,
music, he is brought upstairs to the second
story of the Palazzo Chlgl and exhibited
from the balcony to crowds of admiring
and applauding spectators below, and,
finally banquets are given in the open,
streets and the horse Is Invited and occu
pies the head of a long table with a fine
full manger before htm.
Such are the races of the pallo at Siena,
today and such have they been for hun
dreds of years gone by. '
Nile Delta
up to by his fellows. Your dragoman win
tell you that he has a sure passport to
heaven and that the turban Is a sign,
that he has mado tho pilgrimage to Mecca
and thus earned the right to the colors of
the prophet. Behind him comes a fine
featured, yellow-faced man in a blue gown,
wearing a turban of blue. You ask your
guide who he may be and are told, with a
sneer, that he is a Copt. He Is one of tha
Christians of modern Egypt and has de-'
scendod from the fanatical band whlcli j
Charles Klngslcy describes in his novel,
"Hypatla." Like all of his class, he Is
-.intelligent, and like most of them, well
dressed. The Copts are among tha shrewd
est of the business Egyptians, and with
the prosperity now common In the valley
of the Nile, they are growing In wealth.
They are money lenders and are also land
speculators. Many of them have offices
under the government, and not a few
have amassed fortunes. Some of them are
very religious and some can recite the Bi
ble by heart. They are different from
their neighbors In that they believe la
having only ono wife. , j
Girls of Cairo.
But tho crowd in these streets Is by no ,
means all men. There are women scat
tered here and there through It, and such
women! Talk about your peek-a-boo
waists! The Cairo girls have peek-a-boo
veils. All their bodies, with the excep
tion of their eyes, are hidden, and one has
to look close through the slits In their veils
to see whether their skins are wtiite, black
or brown. They are by no mean good
looking as they walk through the streets.
Those of the better classes are clad In
cloaks of black bombazine, made so full
that they bido every outline of the pvrsun.
Some have thlir cloaks tied in at the
waist, and they look like bluck bciltliks
walking off upon 1 kh. Here one raises her
skirts and you see that she has on zouave
bloomed which fall to her ankles; they
make me think of the fourteen-yard
breeches worn by the girls of Algiers. The
poorer women wear gowns of blue cotton,
and a single gown and veil make up a
whole costume. Borne of them carry babies
astride their hips or their shoulders, and"
the babies are often as naked as when they
were born. Not a few of the wonten have
eunuchs to go about with them. The lat
ter are as black as my hat ami as sour as
the sphinx. They are to keep the youn
women from flirting as they shop In the ,
bazars.
Nearly alt of the women have their faces
covered. In the oriental quarters you will
not meet any, except the very lowest of
the peasants, who bus not a long veil of
black crepe, six Inches wide, reaching froia ,
(Continued on Pace Four.)
